En indonesisk etterretningsoffiser og tidligere general som sto anklaget for å ha stått bak drapet på en meget kjent menneskerettsaktivist, er frikjent av mangel på bevis. Mange vitner trakk sine forklaringer eller endret dem.

Gemeralmajor Muchdi Purwoprandjono, sto anklaget for å ha ståt bak forgiftningen av Munir Said Thalib på flyet til Nederland i 2004.

Mr. Munir was poisoned with arsenic while traveling to the Netherlands on a commercial flight aboard state-carrier Garuda in 2004. Earlier this year, an off-duty Garuda pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who jockeyed to sit next to Mr. Munir during the flight, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder.

Analysts, however, have long suspected that Indonesia’s intelligence agency ordered the killing. Phone records discovered during the initial investigation showed that Mr. Pollycarpus had telephoned General Muchdi dozens of times leading up to the murder.

The case has been considered by the international community as a test of how successful Indonesia has been in instituting reforms since the fall of Suharto, the country’s former authoritarian ruler, in 1998.

Domestically, the case has also served as a challenge for Mr. Yudhoyono, who swept into office during Indonesia’s first direct elections on promises to clean up a corrupt government and military. Mr. Yudhoyono, also a former general, is up for re-election next year.

General Muchdi would have been the first high-level military or intelligence official to go to jail for serious human rights abuses. But human rights activists said the case is now another example of the culture of impunity enjoyed by military personnel.
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«If Indonesia is to move beyond its authoritarian past, the justice system must show that generals are not above the law,» said Matt Easton, an analyst with Human Rights First. «Investigators, prosecutors, and the courts must be ready to go where the evidence and the law lead them.»

Indonesia Official Acquitted in Killing