The pathologist at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport scratched his head as he read the autopsy report of the Indonesian man who had died a few days earlier on Garuda Flight 974 from Jakarta. Almost 500 milligrams of arsenic - more than four times the quantity that can kill - had been detected in the body.
Word of Munir Said Thalib's death was already being beamed around the world. Although the reason would not be publicly known for a month, speculation that Indonesia's best-known and most fearless human-rights activist had been murdered was already widespread.
That was September 7 last year. Last month, Indonesian police made the first arrest - Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Priyanto, who made the flight as a security officer. He has been charged with 'facilitating' the poisoning. Last Wednesday two more crew of the national airline were taken in for questioning - Oedi Irianto, who was working in the plane's pantry, and flight attendant Yeti Susmiarti.
On Friday, police questioned former Garuda director Indra Setiawan, dismissed recently in a management shake-up, along with ex-corporate security vice-president Ramelgia Anwar, operations director Hermawan, pilot Carmel Sembiring and his secretary Rohainul Aini.
The flurry of activity would seem to indicate steady progress in the case and raised confidence in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's vow to uncover the truth. His election seven months ago as the country's first democratically elected leader had ushered in hopes that decades of corruption and human-rights abuses would finally be eradicated.
Rights activists have welcomed the special commission he set up to find Munir's killer, along with parliamentary hearings and the establishment of an independent fact-finding team, but they remain sceptical. The reality is that because of Munir's work, any number of people in Indonesia's military, intelligence services and bureaucracy might have wanted to see him dead.
