Jakarta, 5 Oct. (AKI/Jakarta Post) - A Garuda Indonesia airlien party pilot is expected to walk free by March next year after the Indonesian Supreme Court cut his 14-year jail term to only two years, ruling there was insufficient evidence he was responsible for the 'in-flight' murdere of a human rights campaigner, Munir. The court quashed Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto's murder conviction but sentenced him to two years jail for falsifying his assignment documents. First detained in March last year, Pollycarpus is expected to walk free no later than March 2007. The verdict means the state is yet to hold a single person responsible for the infamous murder that implicates top former officials at the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).
Presiding Justice Iskandar Kamil said here Wednesday that a three-member panel had voted two to one Tuesday that Pollycarpus had not been proven guilty of killing Munir, although he was guilty of falsifying a document. The documents were forged so that Pollycarpus, who was off-duty at the time of the flight, could get on the Garuda flight Munir was on board. "The primary charge of premeditated murder was not proven. That's why the previous ruling was quashed. No witnesses saw him plot the murder," Kamil said.