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ll eyes are on former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as he may be the only person to know the whereabouts of a fact-finding team’s investigative report into the murder of human rights defender Munir Said Thalib.

The Central Information Commission (KIP) said recently that the documents were not in the State Secretariat’s possession and that they had been submitted directly to Yudhoyono in a meeting believed to have occured in June 2005.

Munir’s controversial investigation has been put back in the spotlight following a ruling by the KIP in an information dispute between a number of rights campaigners and the State Secretariat earlier this week.

Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who in 2005 served as state secretary and is believed to be among those who attended the meeting with Yudhoyono, also pointed to the former president as the single person to know the whereabouts of an investigative report on Munir’s murder.

Yusril, who failed to testify as a witness in the KIP hearing, told The Jakarta Post that the fact-finding team had submitted the report by hand to Yudhoyono, who, according to Yusril, “did not give any instructions [to the State Secretariat] to register the documents”.

“The TPF [fact-finding team] submitted the report directly to the president. We weren’t able to do anything about it without orders from the president,” Yusril said on Thursday.

The hearing revealed that other officials at the time, including former cabinet secretary Sudi Silalahi, were believed to have attended the June 2005 meeting when two former team members — rights campaigners Usman Hamid and Hendardi — reportedly submitted the documents to Yudhoyono at the State Palace.

Filed in April this year, the petition demanded the State Secretariat announce the findings of the investigative report and disclose the reasons why the report was kept from the public since 2005 when the team completed the investigation.

Under the Freedom of Information Law, which gives the KIP authority to hear disputes over information, a person that intentionally destroys documents of public information may face a maximum two years’ imprisonment or Rp 2 million in fines.

The law also says public institutions that do not comply with KIP rulings or provide public information can face a maximum penalty of Rp 5 million in fines or one-year imprisonment.

The state secretary’s expert staff on legal affairs Alex Lay and presidential spokesman Johan Budi refused to point fingers at who holds the documents, and merely referred to the facts that emerged in the KIP hearing, of which highlighted that the documents in question were handed over directly by the team to Yudhoyono.

“But, we don’t know what happened next or whether Yudhoyono is still in possession of those [documents],” Alex added.

Other than looking into its own administrative record, the State Secretariat has also questioned staff that oversaw record management at that time.

“It is impossible for a [state] institution to reveal [to the public] a document that doesn’t come from its archives,” Alex said. “That is the principle. And it is not aimed at covering up the team’s report.”

Although he said his office would study the ruling before taking further steps, Alex signaled that filing an appeal against the ruling with the Jakarta State Administrative Court was unlikely.

“It is not simply about disclosing the documents,” Johan added.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said that he has ordered Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo to search for the documents and should those bear new evidences, “[a new] legal process can be started”.

The Democratic Party has blasted the government for blaming Yudhoyono’s administration.

“Don’t blame Yudhoyono’s era. The current government should solve the current problems. It’s not about the missing documents, but rather about whether government has the will to resolve the matter,” Dems lawmaker Benny Kabur Harman said.

“It’s impossible for the documents to be missing. But if they are then the government can easily ask for copies from the BIN [State Intelligence Agency], the police or the team. They must have it,” he said, adding that the government should also ask Hendropriyono because he was in charge as BIN chairman at the time.