A former pilot has been jailed for 20 years for murdering Indonesian rights activist Munir Thalib - reversing an earlier ruling quashing his conviction. Pollycarpus Priyanto was jailed for 14 years in 2005, but had his conviction overturned 10 months later. Indonesia's Supreme Court has now reversed that decision - reinstating his initial conviction and increasing his sentence to 20 years. Munir was poisoned with arsenic in 2004 on board a flight to Amsterdam.

The death of the campaigner, who had helped to expose rights abuses by the security services, caused an international outcry.

Munir's widow, Suciwati, said the verdict did not go far enough.

"This is what he deserves, but I wish he got a longer punishment," she told AFP news agency.

"What's more important is to follow up on the intelligence people behind him - [Priyanto] didn't act on his own."

Mastermind plea

The presiding judge said Priyanto - a former pilot with national carrier Garuda Indonesia - had been found guilty of premeditated murder and forgery.

The decision followed a judicial review ordered by the prosecution after new evidence emerged during trials of Priyanto's alleged accomplices.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson, in Jakarta, said the evidence had suggested links between Priyanto and the state intelligence agency.

Testimony included eyewitness accounts of Priyanto drinking with Munir during his journey to Europe.

The head of Kontras - a human rights organisation that has been pressing for resolution of the case - said the decision gave them new hope.

But the group said the legal process should not stop until the plan's mastermind was brought to justice.

====================================================
Outspoken rights campaigner Munir, 38, died onboard aflight to the Netherlands to the shock of many who knew him as "the voice of the voiceless."

One of the founders of the independent Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) passed away on a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam, which departed from Jakarta via Singapore late Monday. The cause of the death remains unclear.

Garuda spokesman Pujobroto said Munir died about two hours before landing at Amsterdam's Schipol airport.

His friends and colleagues said he appeared healthy and cheerful before departing to continue his studies on human rights at Utrecht University, where he had been offered a scholarship.

Pujobroto said the purser or crew supervisor Najib reported to Capt. Pantun Matondang after seeing that Munir, sitting in seat 40-G, appeared to be very ill.

"The cabin crew immediately reported to the pilot in command that a passenger was sick -- a condition which had forced him to go to the restroom several times," Pujobroto said in a press statement.

Matondang then ordered Najib to ask for medical assistance from another passenger, a doctor who also happened to be onboard. After giving initial first aid, Munir was moved to a seat near the doctor.

"At that time he (Munir) looked comfortable and was able to rest comfortably, but about two hours before the plane landed, Najib and the doctor found that Munir had died," Pujobroto said.

Authorities at Schipol airport examined Munir's body in accordance with airport regulations.

"Garuda is ready to take Munir's family to Amsterdam and transport his remains back to Indonesia," said Pujobroto.

Kontras coordinator Usman Hamid said Munir's remains are expected to be flown to Jakarta pending an autopsy.

Munir is survived by his wife, Suciwati, and a son and daughter. As Suciwati prepared to leave for Amsterdam on Wednesday, the family home in Bekasi, East Jakarta, was crowded with praying people, including victims and survivors of the several cases of violence including the Semanggi shootings.

The news of Munir's death shocked colleagues include those who work for Kontras, a non-governmental organization which provides legal counseling to victims of state-sponsored violence.

"Someone phoned the Kontras office at about 11 a.m. and told us Cak Munir died, but we didn't take it seriously. We considered it a hoax, but then around 1 p.m. Pak Todung confirmed he had died," Kontras researcher Batara Ibnu Reza said, referring to noted lawyer and rights campaigner Todung Mulya Lubis.

Todung said a friend of his who also flew to Amsterdam on Malaysian Airlines called to inform him about Munir's death.

Curious rights activists have demanded an autopsy on Munir, according to Todung.

Munir, who also cofounded the Imparsial human rights watch, has won much credit, including from military figures, whom he persistently criticized.

--------------------------------------------------

Born in the Central Java town of Malang on Dec. 8, 1965, Munir's small, aggressive demeanor rose to prominence in the late 1990s amid a rash of
kidnappings and disappearances during the last years of former president Soeharto's rule. His co-founding of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), not long before the May riots, on April 21 1998, challenged the dismissing of acts such as kidnapping, torture and involuntary disappearances as ordinary crimes.

People began to talk of "state violence" as Kontras provided legal counsel for victims, investigated individual cases and made public the results of its
investigations, which often implicated the security forces. Not long after Kontras was established, Munir and his colleagues received a number of threats, including a bomb threat targeted at his family home in Malang, East Java.

Munir almost immediately was recognized internationally for his work, and was honored with awards such as the Yap Thiam Hien Human Rights Award and the Right Livelihood Award 2000, or the "alternative Nobel", from the Swedish government.

He was involved in various high profile investigations, including the violence in East Timor both before and after the 1999 referendum. He reflected later that the national rights body, which set up a team on East Timor, was much more effective than when it investigated the Tanjung Priok case of 1984, even though the national rights body was backed by legislation.

The father of two and husband of Suciati, a former labor activist, also became a hero to the Acehnese as his presence in the war-torn province emboldened a populace used to fear. But as communal violence spread in Indonesia, Kontras was overwhelmed, and he was criticized for neglecting thousands of victims such those in Maluku.

In 2002, Munir cofounded Indonesian Human Rights Watch
(Imparsial). Of the truth and reconciliation commission, the bill for which was finally endorsed on Tuesday, he once said that the prolonged plan to set up the commission was nothing more than "an excuse for impunity."