A LETTER from a long way away has prompted a flurry at the Attorney Generals Office in Jakarta. All week long, last week, the Director of Civil Cases, Yoseph Suardi Sabda, attended meetings. All senior prosecution officers time and again asked for information about progress in that case.

Sent by facsimile by the Indonesian embassy to Britain last September 20, 2006, the letter contains something that cannot be taken lightly, namely a request from