Brussels 19/02/2008: Munir Said Thalib, a leading human rights activist, was poisoned with arsenic on a flight from Indonesia to the Netherlands in 2004. In September 2006, European commission President José Manuel Barroso asked the President of Indonesia to address the slow judicial process in the Munir case. More than a year has passed since Barroso’s intervention but the need for international pressure to ensure justice for Munir remains as strong as ever.

In September 2007, Munir’s widow, Suciwati, and two former members of the fact finding team in the Munir case, Usman Hamid and Asmara Nababan, travelled to Brussels to lobby Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and officials from the EC institutions to put pressure on the Indonesian authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice. Following this visit, five MEPs drafted a written declaration calling for swift action. To date, 212 MEPs have signed the written declaration (Written Declaration No. 98 / 2007 on the murder of the human rights activist Munir Said Thalib). A further 171 signatures are required before the deadline on Tuesday 26 February 2008 if the written declaration is to be officially adopted by the European Parliament.

A special website has been created to provide information about the Munir case and the European Parliament’s written declaration on the issue (see below).