T

he Attorney General's Office (AGO) filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on Monday to review the verdict that exonerated former top spy Muchdi Purwopranjono of all charges related to the assassination of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib.

AGO prosecutors, led by Cirus Sinaga, arrived at the South Jakarta District Court office to submit the appeal document and was received by court secretary Lilies Djuaningsih.

"We have officially filed the appeal today," assistant attorney general for general crimes Abdulah Ritonga told journalists at his office Friday.

On the last day of 2008, the South Jakarta District Court released Muchdi after clearing him of all charges, saying prosecutors had not presented sufficient evidence the defendant had played a role in the Munir murder.

Munir, who was a staunch critic of the armed forces during the Soeharto administration, was poisoned on board a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam Sep. 7, 2004.

"In general, we are questioning the judges' decision to rule that Muchdi was not involved in the Munir murder, particularly because they ignored the fact he was the one who ordered Pollycarpus to board Munir's flight acting as an aviation security officer," Cirus said.

Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder.

Prosecutors told the district court they had taped conversations between Muchdi and Pollycarpus from before and after the murder. Prosecutors failed to play the recordings during the trial.

Muchdi has continually denied the phone conversations with Pollycarpus, a former Garuda pilot employed as a BIN agent, saying his cell phone was frequently used by other people.

Muchdi also claimed he was in Malaysia on duty when the conversations took place.

The judges accepted this alibi and ruled in favor of the former BIN agent.

In response to the appeal, the Solidarity Committee for Munir urged the Supreme Court to conduct an open trial for the Muchdi appeal to allow the public to monitor the whole hearing process.

"The court should also summon all witnesses who retracted their testimonies during the trials at the district court, and hear their testimonies," committee coordinator Choirul Anam told a press conference at the Commission for Missing People and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

Kontras and many other human rights groups have condemned the court verdict, saying it insulted the people's sense of justice and gave credence to the public perception that the country's legal system and law enforcers, including police, prosecutors and judges, lacked credibility and transparency.

Earlier this month, Muchdi's team of lawyers filed a defamation complaint with police claiming that Kontras coordinator Usman Hamid had blatantly accused their client of being responsible for murdering Murnir in September 2004.

Responding to the defamation accusations, Usman said Muchdi was attempting to disrupt investigations into the murder.