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Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Police have named Muchdi PR, a former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy chief, as a suspect in the murder of human rights activist Munir, a spokesman said here Thursday.

"Having been declared a suspect, he will be detained as soon as his interrogation tonight is over," chief of the National Police Headquarters` public relations division Insp Gen Abubakar Nataprawira said Thursday night.

Police had served a summon on Muchdi to come to the National Police Headquarters for questioning on Friday (June 20) but he met the summons a day earlier at his own volition, Nataprawira said.

"So Muchdi was not arrested but he gave himself up," Nataprawira said, adding that before he showed up at the National Police Headquarters, Muchdi`s lawyer had informed the police his client would surrender on Thursday night.

Nataprawira said Muchdi was to be charged based on Article 340 of the Penal Code on premeditated murder and the Code`s Article 55 on participation in a criminal offense.

The articles carried the maximum penalties of 20 years imprisonment, life-long impisonment or death.

Earlier, National Police Chief Gen Sutanto and the head of the National Police`s Criminal Investigation Department Com Gen Hendarso Dahuri had indicated police had identified a new suspect in the Munir murder case. But they declined to reveal the new suspect`s name.

Muchdi PR`s name was mentioned in the court trials of two other people involved in Munir`s murder. A Munir case fact-finding team had also recommended he should be questioned.

The two persons already tried and convicted by a court for Munir`s murder were former Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto and former PT Garuda airline company president director Indra Setiawan. Priyanto was sentenced to 20 years and Setiawan to one year in jail.

Munir died after being poisoned during a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on September 7, 2004.

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