Strange and Horrible things happening in Indonesia

Airline meal ‘used to kill activist’
The former head of Indonesia’s national airline faces 20 years in jail over the killing of an outspoken human rights activist whose in-flight meal was laced with a massive dose of arsenic. The poisoning of Munir Said Thalib in 2004 silenced one of the most ardent critics of Indonesia’s military, a lawyer who, at 38, had spent much of his life exposing the corruption and human rights abuses wrought by its officers. Before his agonising mid-flight death shortly before landing in Amsterdam, Mr Munir had been preparing a report on human rights abuses in the provinces of Aceh and Papua.
Indra Setiawan, the former head of Garuda Airlines, and his deputy, Rohainil Aini appeared in the Central Jakarta District Court yesterday on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Their trials follow the 2005 conviction of Pollycarpus Priyanto , an off-duty Garuda pilot found guilty of Mr Munir’s murder but acquitted on appeal to the Supreme Court last year. The murder, claim Mr Munir’s supporters, may ultimately have been the work of Indonesia’s spy agency.
For the human rights activists still fighting Mr Munir’s cause, the case provokes grim memories of the 32-year dictatorship of President Suharto – an era in which the state effectively killed its opponents at will and its agents were above the law.
The trial is under close scrutiny as a test-case for the independence of Indonesia’s justice system nearly a decade after the fall of Mt Suharto.
Since her husband’s death, Mr Munir’s wife, Suciwati, has reportedly received death threats. She was also sent a decapitated chicken in a box and an accompanying warning not to connect Mr Munir’s death with the Indonesian military.