http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/jakarta-graft-buster-antasari-azhar-faces-death-penalty/story-e6frg6so-1225821376033
Jakarta graft-buster Antasari Azhar faces death penalty a.. Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent b.. From: The Australian c.. January 20, 2010 12:00AM INDONESIAN prosecutors have demanded death sentences for the country's sacked former chief graft-buster, a dodgy senior policeman and a newspaper publisher, over the assassination last year of a prominent businessman. The calls were the latest development in a case that echoes the conspiracy claims more usually associated with the old regime of former dictator Suharto. Antasari Azhar, until recently the chief of Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission, sat mostly expressionless as prosecutors summed up their case in South Jakarta District Court yesterday. Mr Antasari's most animated moments came as lurid details of alleged sexual liaisons between him and the victim's beautiful young third wife were tabled, the former criminal prosecutor only shaking his head slowly as the claims were read out. He has always denied the sex claims, used by prosecutors in their case that bad blood between Mr Antasari and wealthy industrialist Nasrudin Zulkarnaen was behind the latter's assassination as he returned home from a golf game last March. Five men have already been jailed for carrying out the murder, but it is only now that the alleged masterminds are facing their moments of truth. Outside the court yesterday Mr Antasari, who was arrested soon after the shooting, insisted that "even the evidence from the prosecution's witnesses did not support its case" against him. Also in the dock was former South Jakarta police chief Wiliardi Wizard, charged with organising the shooting of Nasrudin after Mr Antasari began receiving SMS threats relating to the alleged sexual liaison he had with Mr Nasrudin's consort, 23-year-old golf caddy Rhani Juliani. The firing squad also now looms for newspaper proprietor Sigid Hario Wibisono, said to have been the go-between who introduced the two men in return for Mr Antasari's help in having Chief Commissioner Wiliardi promoted to Brigadier-General. Commissioner Wiliardi is suspended pending the case's verdict but Mr Antasari, being a government appointee as head of the anti-graft body, has already been removed from his position. The case has the potential to rock the highest levels of Indonesian society and government circles, with critics suggesting the allegations against Mr Antasari are a payback for his pursuit of corrupt officials, police prosecutors and parliamentarians. Was his ordeal a result of a revenge campaign? "I'll leave that to others to judge," Mr Antasari said. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
