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Ex-Indonesian airline chief jailed in murder case
A Jakarta district court yesterday sentenced a former director of Indonesia's national airline to 12 months in prison for his part in the mid-air killing of a human rights activist.
- AP
- Published: 23:55 February 11, 2008
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Former head of Indonesia's national carrier Garuda, Indra Setiawan, is escorted from the courtroom after his trial in Jakarta.
Jakarta: A Jakarta district court yesterday sentenced a former director of Indonesia's national airline to 12 months in prison for his part in the mid-air killing of a human rights activist.
Indra Setiawan, a former CEO of Garuda Airlines, was convicted as an accessory in the 2004 murder of activist Munir Said Thalib, in a case seen as a critical test of Indonesia's ability to break from more than three decades of impunity for regime loyalists and cronies during the rule of the late dictator Suharto.
"By God, I'm not guilty," Setiawan told the court. He vowed to appeal.
Thalib, a vocal critic of Indonesia's military, died in September 2004 while flying from Jakarta to Amsterdam after ingesting a fatal dose of arsenic.
The court said Setiawan had abused his position to enable Polycarpus Priyanto to board the flight and give Munir an arsenic-laced drink during a stopover at Singapore's airport. Priyanto was convicted of premeditated murder in the case last month.
Disappeared letter
Setiawan earlier told the court that the national spy agency, known as BIN, had asked him to put Priyanto, an off-duty pilot, on the flight from Jakarta to Singapore as a security agent. He said a letter of request disappeared when someone broke into his car and stole his briefcase last year.
Last week, the police claimed to have found the letter, but refused to elaborate further.
The police said it would question BIN agents about their alleged involvement in the killing.
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