Pilot jailed for killing by arsenic

JAKARTA - An off-duty pilot with the state-owned carrier Garuda Indonesia was jailed for 14 years for his part in the murder of the country's foremost human rights activist, who died after eating an in-flight meal of fried noodles laced with arsenic.

Munir Thalib, 38, an outspoken critic of military and police brutality as well as corruption in high places, was found dead when his international flight landed in Amsterdam in September last year.

The pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, had given him his business-class seat for the initial Jakarta-to-Singapore leg. Judge Cicut Sutiarsa, said Pollycarpus, who was supervising security on that flight, added a lethal dose of arsenic to Munir's noodles.

Following complaints that police had failed to investigate the murder properly, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set up a fact-finding team, which said last June it had found evidence implicating intelligence officials. Documents suggested that plotters had considered four ways of disposing of Munir: engineering a car crash, using black magic, poisoning him at his workplace, or poisoning him on a flight.

However, two Garuda flight attendants are the only other suspects to have been charged.

- INDEPENDENT