T

he government says that it is paying close attention to the murder case of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib but stresses that it is not its responsibility to find the mastermind behind the murder.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said it was the task of law enforcement institutions to find the mastermind behind the murder of the activist who died from arsenic poisoning during a flight to the Netherlands on
Sept. 7, 2004.

'€œThe current government and past administration, of course, want to find out who was behind the murder. However, it certainly is not our duty to find out who [the mastermind] is,'€ Pramono told reporters on Monday.

Law enforcement institutions have yet to find the mastermind behind Munir'€™s death, although former Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto had been put behind bars. In November last year, or a month after President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo took office, Pollycarpus walked free from prison on parole after he served six years of a 14-year sentence for the murder.

Munir'€™s wife, Suciwati, recently called on Jokowi to establish an independent team to find the mastermind behind the murder following half-hearted investigations conducted by previous administrations over nearly 11 years.

The murder occurred when the country was led by Jokowi'€™s party patron, former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, the current chairperson of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

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