HUNDREDS of muscular men in black, gangs of street thugs and flag-waving militia singing Indonesia's anthem besieged South Jakarta Court yesterday, decrying murder charges against the former chief of Indonesia's special forces and deputy head of the National Intelligence Agency.
It was a show of force against judges and prosecutors trying Major-General Muchdi Purwopranjono for the premeditated murder of Indonesia's leading human rights activist Munir Thalib.
Mr Munir was poisoned with arsenic during a stopover on a flight to Amsterdam in 2004, and died in agony mid-flight.
The pursuit of Mr Munir's killers is one of the biggest tests of Indonesia's reform program and the ability of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to confront military and intelligence elites.
Muchdi, the intelligence agency's former deputy director for covert operations, denies any knowledge of the murder or of Pollycarpus Priyanto - the Garuda pilot convicted of poisoning a drink he bought for Mr Munir during the stopover in Singapore.
New evidence presented at yesterday's hearing appears damning. Confessions of agents, information on intelligence agency computers and phone records link Muchdi directly to Pollycarpus and the murder plot.
Muchdi made four calls to Pollycarpus on the morning of Mr Munir's death.
The same day, the prosecutor Cyrus Sinagu told the court, Pollycarpus called Muchdi's assistant, Budi Santoso, and stated: "I got big fish in Singapore."
Mr Santoso asked: "Have you reported that to Mr Muchdi?"
Pollycarpus replied that he had, the court was told.
A draft of a letter asking Garuda to assign Pollycarpus to security duties - enabling him to board Mr Munir's flight - was recovered from Muchdi's computer.
Mr Santoso said Pollycarpus told him: "I got assignment from Mr Muchdi to terminate Munir." Mr Santoso confessed to delivering thousands of dollars to Pollycarpus for the assignment.
Phone records show more than 80 calls between the trio around the time of the murder, and intelligence agency records state Muchdi recruited Pollycarpus as an undercover agent.
Mr Sinagu told the court Muchdi had a "personal vendetta" against the activist, who founded the rights group Kontras and exposed corruption and brutality by military and intelligence officers.
Only 52 days into Muchdi's term as chief of Kopassus, Indonesia's special forces, Mr Munir revealed his complicity in the disappearance of 13 activists during protests against president Soeharto in 1997 and 1998. Muchdi was sacked, but was later recruited by the National Intelligence Agency.
"It killed his military career," Mr Sinagu said. Observers including Usman Hamid - who replaced Mr Munir as head of Kontras - maintain the murder was ordered by even more senior officials.
Mr Hamid called on President Yudhoyono to order personal protection for those involved in the case, saying there were genuine fears for their lives. The presence of thugs and show of force from military and intelligence agents were aimed to intimidate, he said.
The trial resumes in two weeks.
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