Police Set to Reopen the Activist Munir Assassination Case
4 September 2018 11:36 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian National Police (Polri) headquarters announced that it plans to reopen the case involving the assassination of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib.
“National Police Chief General Tito Karnavian has ordered the Criminal Investigation Unit Chief Inspector General Arief Sulistyanto to reopen the case’s files,” said Police Spokesman Insp. Gen. Setyo Wasisto on Monday, September 3.
Previously reported, former member of the Munir assassination fact-finding team Usman Hamid claimed that Police Inspector General Arief Sulistiyanto is the perfect individual to handle the case considering Arief was once involved in the fact-finding team effort.
“He was once involved in the fact-finding process,” said Usman Hamid in Cikini, Central Jakarta, on Thursday, August 30.
Munir, who founded the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), died of toxic poisoning from arsenic poison during a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on September 7, 2004. So far, former Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was tried by the Court.
Lately, former Kopassus Commander Major General Muchdi Purwopranjono is said to be involved in the assassination of Munir. However, the South Jakarta District Court found him not guilty and set him free of all charges.
ANDITA RAHMA