The former head of Indonesia’s national airline faces 20 years in jail over the killing of an outspoken human rights activist whose in-flight meal was laced with a massive dose of arsenic.

The poisoning of Munir Said Thalib in 2004 silenced one of the most ardent critics of Indonesia’s military, a lawyer who, at 38, had spent much of his life exposing the corruption and human rights abuses wrought by its officers.

Before his agonising mid-flight death shortly before landing in Amsterdam, Mr Munir had been preparing a report on human rights abuses in the provinces of Aceh and Papua.

Indra Setiawan, the former head of Garuda Airlines, and his deputy, Rohainil Aini appeared in the Central Jakarta District Court yesterday on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Their trials follow the 2005 conviction of Pollycarpus Priyanto , an off-duty Garuda pilot found guilty of Mr Munir’s murder but acquitted on appeal to the Supreme Court last year. The murder, claim Mr Munir’s supporters, may ultimately have been the work of Indonesia’s spy agency.

For the human rights activists still fighting Mr Munir’s cause, the case provokes grim memories of the 32-year dictatorship of President Suharto – an era in which the state effectively killed its opponents at will and its agents were above the law.

The trial is under close scrutiny as a test-case for the independence of Indonesia’s justice system nearly a decade after the fall of Mt Suharto.

Since her husband’s death, Mr Munir’s wife, Suciwati, has reportedly received death threats. She was also sent a decapitated chicken in a box and an accompanying warning not to connect Mr Munir’s death with the Indonesian military.

The Government of President Susi-lo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was elected on an anti-corruption platform, recently promised justice for Mr Munir’s murder.

Mr Setiawan and Ms Aini are accused of forging documents that allowed Mr Priyanto to be on the flight and put him in a position where he was able to offer his business-class seat to the murdered man.

At an earlier hearing, Mr Setiawan said that he received a letter signed by the deputy head of the Indonesian spy agency, the BIN, before Mr Munir’s death, asking him to allow Mr Priyanto to be a flight security officer.

Phone records also show the off-duty pilot making more than 40 phone calls to a deputy director of the Indonesian spy service in the days leading up to Mr Munir’s poisoning. The Supreme Court, however, judged in 2006 that there was not enough evidence to convict Mr Priyanto.

Violent repression

— Human rights groups have reported a violent crackdown on indigenous Papuan activists seeking independence from Indonesia

— Eight extra judicial killings involving police have occurred since 2005 and five further cases are under investigation

— Two rapes by military officers have also been recorded.

Sources: Human Rights Watch, Reliefweb

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