Munir's poison?

On my way from Taipei back to Jakarta, I went to a bookstore and had a drink at the Coffee Bean & Tea shop in Terminal 2 at Changi airport in Singapore, during the three-hour transit.

In the murder case of rights activist Munir, SA testified that at 1 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2004, the Coffee Bean shop was closed, but he saw Munir sitting on a sofa with a man resembling Pollycarpus and another with long hair and a pale complexion. Neither were drinking or eating.

Ongen, the other witness, said he was at the shop for only 10 minutes to buy some drink to take with his Decolgen (flu medicine). In his examination account, Ongen said he had seen Pollycarpus holding two cups of tea, but the statement was retracted because of what he claimed was police pressure.

At the coffee shop I ordered a cup of hot tea, knowing that Munir had not been fond of drinking coffee. The hot tea was served by only one employee in a tightly closed plastic glass, which was hard to open due to the heat.

I had to wait for 25 minutes before drinking it, and the seat was two meters away from the shop counter.

Under such circumstances, in my evaluation, it would have been difficult to put (according to Tempo magazine) a spoonful of arsenic into the cup. It should also be noted that besides the coffee shop, there were also a cake and cold drink shop still open. I speculate that someone may have bought the drink from this shop.

Before my visit, I suspected that the arsenic had been poured into hot tea rather than cold orange juice, because arsenic trioxides are far less soluble in cold water. After hearing the testimonies and visiting Coffee Bean, however, everything around this case again became obscured.

SUNARTO PRAWIROSUJANTO
Jakarta