Indonesian court clears former spy official of human right activist’s murder

In 2004, Indonesia’s most renowned human rights activist, Munir Said Thalib, was poisoned during a flight to the Netherlands. He was traveling aboard a plane operated by Garuda, Indonesia’s state carrier, when he consumed arsenic that had been clandestinely dispensed into his in-flight meal. A few months ago, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, an off-duty Garuda pilot who was sitting next to Mr. Munir during his fatal flight, was given a 20-year prison term for poisoning the activist. During the court case, however, it was revealed that the convicted assassin had engaged in frequent telephone communication with General Muchdi Purwoprandjono, then Deputy Director of Indonesia’s State Intelligence Agency, commonly known as BIN. Read more of this post