Indonesia Sentences Pilot In 2004 Murder of Activist

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Jan. 25 -- Indonesia's Supreme Court on Friday sentenced a former pilot to 20 years in prison for the murder of a human rights activist, and police said they would question intelligence agents for the first time about their alleged involvement in the case.

The questioning could end years of deadlock over the investigation into the killing of Munir Said Thalib, who had exposed military abuses during the U.S.-backed dictatorship of former president Suharto.

Thalib died of arsenic poisoning on a commercial Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam in September 2004.

A lower court in 2005 convicted Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a former pilot for Garuda, in the killing. The Supreme Court acquitted him 10 months later, drawing international criticism.

The same court overturned the acquittal Friday based on new evidence and ruled that Priyanto committed premeditated murder, said court spokesman Nurhadi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Priyanto also was convicted of using forged documents to board the plane posing as a security agent.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stahl welcomed the Supreme Court ruling for "its significance for accountability and the success of the Indonesian judicial system in enforcing the rule of law."

Congress decided last month to withhold $2.7 million in military aid to Indonesia pending a deadline for completing the criminal investigation.

Thalib's widow, Suciwati, said Priyanto "should have received a life sentence" and urged police to "follow this up by bringing to justice the former leaders of the spy agency."

After his conviction, Priyanto insisted he was a victim of politics. "Everything is a big lie. I was framed," Priyanto told reporters at his home in the capital, Jakarta, as police waited to take him to prison. "This is all about politics. I am a victim."

Thalib's case has been seen as a critical test of Indonesia's ability to break from more than three decades of impunity during Suharto's rule.

Historians say up to 800,000 alleged communist sympathizers were killed during his rise to power from 1965 to 1968. His troops killed an additional 300,000 in military operations against independence movements in Papua, Aceh and East Timor. No one has been punished in the killings.