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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 001223 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/30/2017 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL PINR KCRM KJUS ID
SUBJECT: PROGRESS IN THE MUNIR CASE 
 
REF: A. JAKARTA 163 
 
     ¶B. 06 JAKARTA 13007 
     ¶C. 06 JAKARTA 12300 
     ¶D. 05 JAKARTA 16710 - POLLCARPUS CONVICTED 
     ¶E. 05 JAKARTA 15680 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY POLITICAL OFFICER STANLEY HARSHA, REASONS 
1.4 (B AND D). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary.  The Indonesian police have intensified 
their investigation into the murder of Indonesian human 
rights leader Munir, making new arrests and reopening the 
case against the Garuda airlines pilot already acquitted.  It 
is headed by the recently appointed chief of the Internal 
Investigations Division (CID) for the Indonesian National 
Police (INP), who told us that the new evidence includes 
forensic analysis of the arsenic content in Munir and 
information stemming from the interrogation of new witnesses. 
 Separately, human rights lawyers with the organization 
Kontras claimed that police are also pursuing witnesses that 
would tie the assassination plot directly to the former 
director of the Indonesian National Intelligence Agency (BIN) 
and his subordinates.  The legal team representing Munir's 
widow Suciwati is optimistic about progress in the case for 
the first time since the investigation began in November 
2004, expressing confidence in the current police team. 
However, there are some doubts about the validity of the 
forensic evidence and whether the current investigation is 
actually probing the politically sensitive possibility of 
high level knowledge of the assassination.  End Summary. 
 
NEW LEADS IN CASE 
----------------- 
 
¶2.  (C) During an April 26 meeting, the new head of the team 
investigating the murder of Indonesian human rights activist 
Munir, CID Head Bambang Hendarso Danuri, told us that the 
results of forensic testing on Munir's organs done by Applied 
Speciation and Consulting in Tukwilla, Washington provided 
key new evidence in the case.  The team's lead field and 
forensic investigator Mathius Salempang added that the lab 
report showed the arsenic was primarily "S-3" type, which 
takes effect between 30 and 60 minutes after ingestion.  This 
crucial evidence led the police to establish a new timeline 
for the murder. (Note:  FBI Jakarta says they are not 
familiar with the term "S-3" type of arsenic speciation and 
are not certain whether arsenic poisoning can be pinpointed 
so precisely.) 
 
¶3.  (C) According to Hendarso, Munir was poisoned during his 
approximately 70-minute layover at Changi airport in 
Singapore, at about 1 a.m. on September 7, 2004.  Witnesses 
on the Garuda flight from Singapore to Amsterdam have told 
police that Munir began throwing up ten minutes after 
boarding the flight, with diarrhea following 10 minutes 
later.  (According to Indonesia's Tempo Magazine, an 
Indonesian doctor tried to treat Munir with nausea and 
diarrhea medicine throughout the flight.  Munir died while 
the flight was crossing over Romania). 
 
¶4. (C) The arsenic tests, coupled with new eyewitness 
accounts, have given police enough new evidence to charge 
Pollycarpus for murder again, Hendarso said.  Pollycarpus' 
conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court on October 4, 
2006 because of lack of evidence showing that he actually 
poisoned Munir (Ref C).  Indonesian law allows cases to be 
reopened with new evidence.  INP has 39 witnesses in the new 
case against Pollycarpus, of which the Attorney General has 
accepted 18.  Police handed their file over for prosecution 
on April 19, who will now decide whether to indict 
Pollycarpus again.  Vice Attorney General Muchtar Arifin told 
the media on April 28 that his office is still examining the 
evidence. 
 
¶5. (C) As already revealed in court, Pollycarpus had given up 
his business class seat to Munir while chatting with him in 
the ticket line at the Jakarta airport.  According to police, 
two witnesses now place Pollycarpus at Changi's Coffee Bean 
restaurant during transit for the Amsterdam flight.  The 
exchange of seats was necessary to get Munir off the plane 
quickly at Changi so that Pollycarpus would have time to 
poison him, Hendarso said.  Hendarso said a key witness is 
Ongen Latuihamalo, described in the media as a tall, 
long-haired, golden voiced singer from Ambon, Moluccas who 
has resided in Amsterdam for many years, and is rumored to 
traffic in ecstasy.  A Dutch diplomat told us that Ongen is 
very popular in Holland.  Working through his family, police 
 
JAKARTA 00001223  002 OF 003 
 
 
persuaded Ongen to hand himself over to INP for protective 
custody under the 2006 Witness Protection Law, and 
investigator Salempang said he escorted Ongen from Kuala 
Lumpur to Jakarta on April 19. 
 
¶6. (C) Ongen is now being held in a safe location as a 
voluntary witness, and is being "very, very cooperative," 
offering information key to the case against Pollycarpus, 
Hendarso told us.  Ongen reportedly sat with Munir and 
Pollycarpus and witnessed Pollycarpus bring a cup of a hot 
drink from the Coffee Bean counter to Munir.  A second key 
witness to the Pollycarpus encounter is being sought in a 
major European country - not Holland - Hendarso revealed, 
refusing to offer more details.  (Note: Tempo Magazine 
interviewed an Indonesian witness to the Munir-Pollycarpus 
encounter, an "SA" who lives in Germany and recognized Munir 
sitting with two individuals who match the descriptions of 
Pollycarpus and Ongen.)  Strangely enough, Suciwati now says 
she remembers Ongen approaching her at Changi airport in 2005 
while she was flying to the U.S. and giving her his phone 
number and an alias name.  Ongen told Suciwati he might be 
able to help in the Munir case and to call him, Suciwati's 
attorneys told us.  Suciwati said she never followed up but 
now recognizes Ongen as the same person. 
 
ADDITIONAL ARRESTS 
------------------ 
 
¶7. (C) Since Hendarso took over the investigation in January, 
police also have arrested two Garuda executives in connection 
with the murder.  Former CEO Indra Setiawan and Head of 
Operations Rohainil Aini are accused of providing the letter 
assigning Pollycarpus to fly to Singapore on September 6. 
"They can be indicted of abetting a murder," Hendarso said, 
adding, "They provided all the documents to facilitate" 
Pollycarpus' flight.  Setiawan also tried to block police 
access to documents, Hendarso said.  Still, one former 
investigator who had worked on the Munir case is skeptical 
that these new arrests will lead to anything, telling us that 
Hendarso is under pressure to show progress and so is making 
arrests first, hoping the arrests will lead to evidence, 
rather than gathering evidence to make the arrests first. 
 
NEW TEAM LEADS INVESTIGATION 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) Hendarso said his new nine-person team is keeping a 
tight lid on information, not sharing any evidence with 
persons outside the team.  Only one member of the old team is 
still part of the investigation.  Hendarso would not reveal 
that person's name but it is possibly the former lead 
investigator Anton Charliyan, who according to human rights 
lawyers was in Aceh last week seeking to interview a witness, 
a BIN agent.  However, Charliyan told us during an April 24 
meeting that he is no longer authorized to discuss the case, 
closing off what had been a very useful inside source to the 
investigation. 
 
¶9. (C) As mentioned in Ref A, Charliyan told the Kontras 
lawyers in January that former BIN Chief Hendropriyono 
chaired two meetings at which Munir's assassination was 
planned, basing his accusation on a BIN witness who remains 
afraid to give formal testimony.  That official said only the 
time and method of the murder changed from the plans he heard 
discussed; original plans were to kill Munir in his office, 
Charliyan reportedly revealed to Kontras. 
 
¶10. (C) Kontras lawyers revealed an additional intriguing 
lead during an April 19 briefing for diplomats.  A BIN agent 
and former army special forces (Kopassus) colonel with 
extensive action in Aceh, Bambang Irawan, allegedly developed 
the arsenic used to murder Munir.  Police sources told 
Kontras that they have witnessed Irawan experimenting with 
arsenic on cats.  They saw Irawan killing cats with arsenic, 
Kontras lawyers claim.  Irawan also allegedly met Munir at 
Changi, according to witnesses and immigration records, the 
lawyers claim. 
 
POSSIBLE HIGH LEVEL INVOLVEMENT 
------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (C) While Charliyan did admit to us last December that 
Hendropriyono is one of the prime suspects, Charliyan is no 
longer willing to talk about the case.  Police sources have 
told us that Charliyan's superiors were unhappy with the many 
leaks that were attributed to him.  Hendarso declined to 
discuss the aspects of the case involving planning of the 
 
JAKARTA 00001223  003 OF 003 
 
 
murder, only saying that he remains "hopeful" that the 
masterminds will also be revealed.  Public statements by 
Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh also suggest there is 
sufficient political will to bring the masterminds to 
justice.  Rahman told Tempo Magazine that Munir "had been a 
target for months" and that "Munir was one person who was 
considered to be a thorn in someone's side, and it had to be 
removed."  Rahman also said that in order for the killers to 
get on the flight, "someone had a great deal of authority 
over the airlines." 
 
SENSE OF OPTIMISM AND URGENCY 
----------------------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) Kontras team lawyers Usman Hamid and Raffendi 
Djamin also are expressing more enthusiasm over the 
investigation for the first time since the murder, saying 
they believe that police are on the right track.  Suciwati 
also told the media in April, "I am quite pleased with the 
police work this time." 
 
¶13. (C) President Yudhoyono reportedly met with the foreign 
minister, the coordinating minister for security affairs, the 
attorney general and the police chief in early April to make 
sure they prioritized the case, Raffendi said.  The GOI is 
particularly sensitive to criticism from the UN Special 
Rapporteur on Human Rights, Philip Alston, as well as that of 
the U.S. Congress.  Hendarso and Salempang specifically asked 
us about Congressional interest in the case. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶14. (C) While the investigation has certainly found new 
impetus, it remains unclear whether the police have strong 
enough evidence to bring Pollycarpus to trial, as even the 
new evidence would appear to be circumstantial.  It is 
equally unclear to what extent police are seriously looking 
for the masterminds behind the murder.  A breakthrough on who 
ordered the murder would presumably require someone with 
inside information to take an extraordinary risk in 
testifying, and would require protection.  Nonetheless, the 
police seem to have been given orders to show progress on the 
case, likely due to international attention. 
HEFFERN