Former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy director Muchdi Purwopranjono was cleared by a Jakarta Court last month of masterminding the fatal poisoning of Munir, an outspoken critic of military rights abuses, in 2004.

'The Attorney General's Office (AGO) will file an appeal on Jan 12 to the Supreme Court,' spokesman Jasman Panjaitan told reporters.

'We do hope that the Supreme Court will bring justice for the people,' he said.

Munir, who claimed the military was behind the abduction of pro-democracy protesters in 1998, was poisoned with arsenic as he flew on national airline Garuda Indonesia from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Singapore in September 2004.

Former Garuda boss Indra Setiawan and pilot Pollycarpus Priyanto were previously given jail terms for their roles in the murder, but activists have long accused senior spies of being behind the killing.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reportedly called on the AGO and police to continue investigating the case despite Muchdi's acquittal, which has angered rights advocates here.

Mr Yudhoyono, who was elected in 2004 on a platform of reform and anti-corruption, pledged during the campaign to bring Munir's killers to justice.

The murder case is seen as a litmus test of how far Indonesia has come in curtailing the power of the military since the 1998 fall of the country's former dictator Suharto. -- AFP