T

he wife of slain human rights defender Munir Said Thalib, Suciwati, on Sunday called on President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to establish an independent team to find the mastermind behind the murder of her husband following half-hearted investigations conducted by previous administrations over nearly 11 years.

Suciwati made the appeal as the country prepares to observe on Monday the 11th year since Munir'€™s death, a tragedy dating back to Sept. 7, 2004, when the country was led by Jokowi'€™s patron, former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, the current chairman of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Investigations into Munir'€™s death have so far seen two administrations, starting with former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who took office after Megawati, as well as the current Jokowi administration.

But as of today, law enforcement institutions have only prosecuted former Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Prijanto, who walked free from prison on parole in November last year, one month after Jokowi assumed leadership. He served six years of a 14-year sentence for the murder.

Suciwati said the establishment of an independent team was important since a fact-finding team under Yudhoyono indicated that Munir'€™s death was a scheme involving more than one perpetrator, possibly including people from the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).

'€œJokowi earlier made a statement that if [he failed] to provide prosperity for Indonesians then it meant that he violated the country'€™s constitution. This is just the same. If Jokowi fails to solve Munir'€™s case then he will violate the constitution,'€ Suciwati told reporters at the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) office on Sunday.

Attending the press conference, Al Araf, the director of human rights watchdog Imparsial, said that activists in Indonesia would continue to face uncertainty in terms of security when voicing criticism against the performance of the government if Jokowi failed to find the mastermind behind Munir'€™s death.

'€œWe have to see that the solution to Munir'€™s case will give a sense of security in society. If this case is not solved, in the future it will be harder to solve a case involving activists who are poisoned due to their criticisms of the government'€™s performance,'€ Al Araf told reporters.

Kontras chairman Haris Azhar said that Munir'€™s family deserved to know who killed the human rights defender and added it was the responsibility of the government to provide such an answer to the family of the slain activist.

Munir, who was a prominent human rights campaigner, died from arsenic poisoning during a flight to the Netherlands.

In addition to the freed Pollycarpus, Muchdi Purwoprandjono, a former BIN deputy chief who was accused of being involved in the case, was acquitted of all charges in late 2011.

Leaked US diplomatic cables, released by WikiLeaks, alleged that former BIN chief Hendropriyono, who is a close friend of Jokowi, '€œchaired two meetings at which Munir'€™s assassination was planned'€ and a witness at those meetings told police that '€œonly the time and method of the murder changed from the plans he heard discussed; original plans were to kill Munir in his office'€.

Haris further said that Jokowi should not be hampered in making decisions on Munir'€™s case in the future even though people like Hendropriyono, who helped Jokowi during his presidential campaign in 2014, had potential roles in the case.

'€œIt'€™s been proven that Munir was killed with the help of intelligence agents under Hendropriyono'€™s tenure. Jokowi should not feel indebted [to Hendropriyono for his help during the presidential campaign],'€ Haris added.
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