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AGO urged to file case review on Muchdi’s acquittal to reopen Munir's case
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Human Rights activists display a banner, demanding that the government solve the murder case of rights champion Munir Said Thalib at a demonstration near the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Sept. 1. (Antara Photo/Sigid Kurniawan)
A
fact-finding team has urged the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to file a case review on the controversial acquittal of former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy chief Muchdi Purwopranjono, who was accused of being involved in the murder of prominent rights defender Munir Said Thalib.
Hendardi of the Setara Institute, a member of a government-commissioned fact-finding team (TPF) set up in 2004, said that even though the Criminal Law Procedures Code cited that a case review should be filed by defendants, prosecutors had set such a precedent before.
He cited the example of the former Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who was acquitted from murder charges but had his conviction reinstated by the Supreme Court in 2008, following a case review filed by then Attorney General Hendarman Supandji.
"In principle, a case review is the right of defendants, but the law still gives room for the AGO to file one. This could be a chance for the Attorney General to solve Munir's murder," Hendardi told journalists on Thursday.
The team's findings, submitted to then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in 2005, referred to Muchdi as one of the actors who had allegedly planned the murder, Hendardi said. Yet, Muchdi was acquitted in 2009.
He further said reopening Muchdi's case could serve as a way to continue a pro-justitia process to resolve the mystery behind Munir's assassination.
Munir died on board a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004 (bbn)
