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Ex-pilot convicted for 2004 killing of rights activist

Police will question Indonesian intelligence agents for the first time about their alleged involvement in the poisoning death of a top human rights activist after a former pilot was convicted for the murder.

The questioning could break years of deadlock over the investigation into the killing of Munir Thalib, who had a reputation for exposing military abuse during the US-backed dictatorship of former president Suharto.

A lower court in 2005 convicted Polycarpus Priyanto, an ex-pilot for national airline Garuda, in the killing. The Supreme Court acquitted him 10 months later, drawing international criticism.

But the same court on Friday overturned the acquittal based on new evidence and ruled that Priyanto committed premeditated murder, said court spokesman Nurhadi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Priyanto was also convicted of using forged documents to board the plane posing as a security agent. He was sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison.

More than a dozen security officers took Priyanto from his home on the outskirts of Jakarta and brought him to Cipinang Prison late on Friday.

Thalib died of arsenic poisoning on a commercial Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam in September 2004. A witness saw him chatting with Priyanto at a coffee shop during a stopover in Singapore, where his drink is believed to have been laced with arsenic.

Prosecutors believe the crime was orchestrated by intelligence officials who ordered airline executives to falsify documents, allowing Priyanto -- who was then off-duty -- to board the jetliner.

Indonesia's police spokesman, Major General Sisno Adiwinoto, said suspects at the State Intelligence Agency will be questioned about "their alleged involvement in the killing."

If police make good on the pledge, it will be a significant victory for rights groups lobbying for legal reform.

Priyanto's conviction has created "an entry point to go after the masterminds," said Usman Hamid, a friend of Thalib and an activist who has campaigned for his killers to be brought to justice.

Thalib's widow, Suciwati, said Priyanto "should have received a life sentence" and urged police to "follow this up by bringing to justice the former leaders of the spy agency."

After his conviction, Priyanto insisted he was a victim of politics.

"Everything is a big lie. I was framed," Priyanto told reporters before being taken from his home in the capital, Jakarta. "This is all about politics. I am a victim."

Thalib's case has been seen as a critical test of Indonesia's ability to break through more than three decades of impunity for regime loyalists during the rule of now-ailing Suharto. More than 1 million political opponents were massacred or imprisoned without trial and no one has ever been held accountable.
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