JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Supreme Court yesterday convicted a former pilot for the national airline of murder in the poisoning death of a top human rights activist, and police said they will question the country’s intelligence agents for the first time in the investigation.
The questioning could break years of deadlock over the investigation into the killing of Munir Thalib, who had a reputation for exposing military abuse during the U.S.-backed dictatorship of President Suharto.
Mr. Thalib died of arsenic poisoning on a commercial Garuda Airlines flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam in September 2004.
A lower court in 2005 convicted Polycarpus Priyanto, an ex-pilot for Garuda, in the killing. The Supreme Court acquitted him 10 months later, drawing international criticism.
But the same court overturned the acquittal yesterday based on new evidence and ruled that Priyanto committed premeditated murder, said court spokesman Nurhadi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
Priyanto also was convicted of using forged documents to board the plane posing as a security agent. He was sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stahl welcomed the Supreme Court ruling for “its significance for accountability and the success of the Indonesian judicial system in enforcing the rule of law.”
The U.S. Congress decided last month to withhold $2.7 million in military aid to Indonesia pending a deadline for completing the criminal investigation.
Indonesia’s chief police spokesman, Maj. Gen. Sisno Adiwinoto, said suspects at the State Intelligence Agency will be questioned about “their alleged involvement in the killing.”
Priyanto’s conviction has created “an entry point to go after the masterminds,” said Usman Hamid, Mr. Thalib’s friend and an activist who has campaigned for his killers to be brought to justice.
Mr. Thalib’s widow, Suciwati, said Priyanto “should have received a life sentence” and urged police to “follow this up by bringing to justice the former leaders of the spy agency.”
After his conviction, Priyanto insisted he was a victim of politics.
“Everything is a big lie. I was framed,” he told reporters at his home in the capital, Jakarta, as police waited to take him to prison. “This is all about politics. I am a victim.”
Mr. Thalib’s case has been seen as a critical test of Indonesia’s ability to break from more than three decades of impunity for regime loyalists and cronies during the rule of now-ailing strongman Gen. Suharto.
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