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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesia: Former official pleads not guilty to murder charge |
| 2008-09-04 |
| (AKI/Jakarta Post) - Former Indonesian intelligence official Muchdi Purwopranjono has pleaded not guilty to the 2004 murder of a prominent human rights campaigner, claiming the charges against him were flawed. Instead, the former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy chief on Tuesday blamed another former agent, Budi Santoso, for the assassination of Munir Said Thalib. Defence lawyers representing 59-year-old Muchdi said the indictment, which alleged Muchdi was responsible for the murder, was based on "assumptions". The charges were derived from the storybook version of human rights activists, they claimed. "According to prosecutors, Muchdi killed Munir out of ill will and revenge. But how do they know about Muchdi's feelings?" defence lawyer Rusdianto asked the South Jakarta District Court. In the indictment, prosecutors said Muchdi sought revenge against Munir, who was held responsible for the defendant's removal as chief of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) only 52 days after his inauguration in 1998. The prosecutors said Munir had revealed in an investigation by the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) that several Kopassus soldiers were involved in the abduction of 13 activists critical of the government between 1997 and 1998. The elite force members, from the Rose Team, were eventually found guilty by the military court. Rusdianto said Muchdi was not Kopassus chief at the time of the abductions, but was at that time still the Tanjungpura military commander for Kalimantan, having "no connection to the incident". Defence lawyers instead accused BIN agent Budi Santoso, who had previously said Muchdi was responsible for the murder. Prosecutors had earlier quoted the testimony of Budi, who admitted to having been told by pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto that the order to kill Munir had come from Muchdi. |
| Posted by:Fred |