Inadra Subagja, Jakarta – A key witness in the Munir murder case, Raymond Latuihamalo alias Ongen, has spoken for the first time about Munir’s activities while he was in transit in Singapore. Ongen said he saw the late Munir sitting with a person at the Coffee Bean in Changi Airport.

“Munir was at the Coffee Bean with a person, but I didn’t know them”, said Ongen at a press conference held at the Sizzler restaurant in the Duku Atas area of Central Jakarta on Wednesday June 6.

Ongen claimed that he did not know Munir personally and only knew about Munir because he was a public figure. Unfortunately Ongen declined to relate what then took place at the café. “It relates to the police interrogation report, we already have a commitment”, said Ongen.

The Coffee Bean is suspected to be the place where Munir ingested the arsenic poison. Ongen said that the café no longer exists at Changi airport. “The Coffee Bean that was there before has now moved”, he said.

In relation to Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto [who was charged but later cleared of the murder], Ongen stated that he was not aquatinted with the Garuda pilot. Ongen became aware of news of Munir’s death not through other aircraft passengers but from a Garuda official named Joseph Ririmasa. “I was informed by Joseph, he was a candidate Garuda station head at the Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands”, he explained.

Ongen conducted the press conference in a relaxed atmosphere. Even though he is a key witness in the case, there was no tight police security and was accompanied only by his lawyer Ozak Sihotang. (gah/aba)

[Translated by James Balowski. For a more detailed background on Ongen and his alleged relationship to the Munir murder see Operation Thorn Removal, Tempo Magazine No 34 – April 24-30, 2007.]