Jakarta. Ridwan Mansyur, the judge who tried the suspected murderer of renowned rights activist Munir Said Thalib, was inaugurated as the justice of the nine-member Constitutional Court on Friday.

Ridwan is replacing Manahan Sitompul who reaches retirement age. He won the House of Representatives confirmation after passing written and interview tests and was selected over four other candidates.

The inauguration ceremony took place at the State Palace in Jakarta led by President Joko Widodo.

Ridwan, a graduate of the Law Faculty of Sriwijaya University, became a judge in 1989 at the Muara Enim District Court in South Sumatra.

He has been called upon to relocate to various districts to follow his duties as a judge and in 2008 became the head of the Batam District Court in Riau Islands province.

Between 2012 and 2017, Ridwan served as the public relations bureau head of the Supreme Court.

He was one of the judges who tried Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who was accused of administering a fatal dose of arsenic in Munir’s drink that led to the activist’s death during a flight to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004.

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Pollycarpus to 14 years in prison for the murder in 2005, but the Supreme Court later acquitted him of the murder conviction and handed him a 2-year prison sentence for document forgery.

An appeal by the Attorney General’s Office prompted the Supreme Court to reopen the case in 2008 and Pollycarpus was found guilty of murdering Munir and given a prison sentence of 20 years.

Pollycarpus died from Covid-19 in 2020, around six years after he was released on parole.

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