Retired Major-General Muchdi Purwopranjono, 59, former deputy chief of the National Intelligence Agency, walked out a free man yesterday after the court found him not guilty of abusing his powers and paying a pilot to assassinate Mr Munir Said Thalib, an outspoken critic of the country's military.

Mr Munir, 38, died of arsenic poisoning on a flight from Jakarta to the Netherlands via Singapore in September 2004.

'There is no evidence linking the accused to the murder. We declare the accused not guilty,' said presiding judge Suharto.

The verdict was greeted with thunderous applause in the packed courtroom from those backing Mr Muchdi. But outside, hundreds of Mr Munir's supporters chanted: 'Murderer! Murderer!'

Mr Munir's widow, Madam Suciwati, said she was discussing an appeal with prosecutors. 'I have not only lost Munir, I have lost my sense of justice,' she said.

Judge Suharto said that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Muchdi had conspired with Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto to kill Mr Munir.

He also rejected allegations that Mr Muchdi had instructed Garuda chief Indra Setiawan to appoint Pollycarpus to be on the same flight with Mr Munir.

Pollycarpus was found guilty of poisoning Mr Munir by the Supreme Court in January and is now serving a 20-year jail term. Indra was sentenced to a year's jail for abetting the murder.

Prosecutors had demanded a 15-year sentence for Mr Muchdi, saying he had 'planned and ordered' the killing.

Mr Muchdi, then chief of Indonesia's special forces, was sacked following disclosures by Mr Munir that the military was involved in kidnapping 13 activists in 1997 and 1998.

But Judge Suharto said: 'There is no evidence that the accused had in fact conspired with Pollycarpus to carry out the assassination.' He also dismissed the prosecution's argument that the two were linked because of 41 outgoing and incoming calls on their mobile phones.

The charging of Mr Muchdi marked the first time a top intelligence agency official had been put on trial in Indonesia.

The case has been closely watched as a gauge of judicial reform in the transitional democracy.

Analyst Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said of the verdict: 'There is crucial evidence in the cellphone conversations between the two. Why didn't the judge ask for the records from the service provider?'

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