Indonesia's leader vows to solve murder case

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's president, has vowed to uncover the orchestrators of the murder of one of the country's most prominent human rights activists after a former senior spy was acquitted of planning the crime. Muchdi Purwoprandjono, a former Indonesian deputy intelligence chief, was found not guilty on Wednesday of charges that he assigned an agent to poison Munir Thalib, who died on a flight to Amsterdam in September 2004. The murder and the willingness of authorities to investigate it has become a barometer for accountability and the rule of law in democratic Indonesia, where many of former dictator Suharto's former elite remain influential.

Andi Mallarangeng, a presidential spokesman, said Mr Yudhoyono, a Suharto-era general, was committed to solving the killing of Munir and would summon the police chief and attorney-general to prepare the best way forward. "The president's instruction to the police and the prosecutor's office is that they must solve this case and bring those responsible to trial," Mr Mallarangeng said. Mr Yudhoyono is under pressure to bring the perpetrators to justice because he made it one of his pre-election promises in 2004. Indonesians go to the polls in April and July in legislative and presidential elections respectively.

Usman Hamid, who replaced Munir as head of the Commission of Missing People and Victims of Violence, said after Wednesday's verdict: "Today the judiciary failed to deliver justice and that means not only did the president's authority fail but also Indonesia has not passed the test of history." The acquittal of Mr Muchdi will also test Jakarta's ties with several foreign nations, particularly the US, who have said the failure to convict the mastermind behind Munir's murder would harm relations with Indonesia. Munir died of arsenic poisoning on a Garuda Indonesia flight from Singapore. Pollycarpus Priyanto, a former Garuda pilot, was sentenced last January to 20 years in prison for lacing Munir's drink at Singapore's Changi airport.Indra Setiawan, a former Garuda chief executive, was jailed for a year the following month for falsifying letters authorising Mr Pollycarpus to travel on Munir's flight.

Mr Muchdi is the first two-star general or senior intelligence official to have been tried in a civilian court. Under the Suharto regime, which ended in 1998, the security forces were virtually untouchable.This trial had been seen as a test of how far accountability has progressed in the last decade.Prosecutors alleged Mr Muchdi's motivation for ordering Munir's murder was the latter's unveiling of human rights abuses, including the abduction of 13 human rights activists in 1997 and 1998.

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