Indonesian police have arrested two officials from Garuda Indonesia airlines for their alleged roles in the murder of a prominent human rights campaigner who was poisoned on a flight to Amsterdam in 2004, local media reports said yesterday.
The two, identified as Indra Setiawan, ex-Garuda president director, and Rohainil Aini, the secretary to Garuda's Airbus chief pilot, were charged late on Saturday afternoon after hours of questioning at national police headquarters.
"We have enough evidence to arrest the two suspects," national police spokesman Sisno Adiwinoto was quoted as saying by Media Indonesia daily newspaper.
Munir Said Thalib, cofounder of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, died aboard a flight to Amsterdam on Garuda, the country's national flag carrier, in September 2004 after his juice was laced with arsenic.
Munir, 38, was a prominent critic of the Indonesian security forces, blamed for thousands of deaths and the disappearances of scores of activists during ex-dictator Suharto's 32-year regime. His work in uncovering atrocities earned him many enemies.
National police chief General Sutanto said last week that both Setiawan and Aini had played roles in issuing an assignment letter to Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto that allowed him to travel on Munir's flight.
Pollycarpus, who was proven to have links to Indonesia's intelligence agency, was convicted and jailed for 14 years for serving Munir the arsenic-laced juice, but the Supreme Court inexplicably overturned his conviction last year.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in