Verdict expected in Indonesia corruption case

Asian Defense News: JAKARTA, Indonesia – An Indonesian judge prepared a verdict Thursday on the country's former anti-graft chief, who stands accused of masterminding the murder of a state businessman.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Antasari Azhar, a former head of the independent Corruption Eradication Commission, better known as the KPK.
Azhar, 56, was arrested in May, two months after Nasrudin Zulkarnaen _ director of pharmaceutical company PT Putra Rajawali Banjaran _ was shot through the window of his car as he left a golf course on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta.
In South Jakarta District Court, prosecutors said Azhar wanted Zulkarnaen killed because he threatened to expose an incident of alleged sexual harassment between Azhar and Zulkarnaen's wife.
Azhar has denied wrongdoing, and described his arrest as a smear campaign in retaliation for his efforts to put high-ranking officials behind bars for corruption.
In separate trials Thursday, police colonel Williardi Wizar was convicted and sentenced to 12 years for recruiting the hit men, and businessman Sigit Haryo Wibisono sentenced to 15 years for financing the operation. Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty for both.
Jerry Hermawan Lo, another businessman who introduced the hit men to Wizar, received the lightest sentence of five years. Prosecutors had asked for 15.
The five hit men involved in Zulkarnaen's killing have each received between 17 and 18 years' imprisonment.
As head of the anti-graft commission for two years, Azhar oversaw a series of high-profile probes into government officials and institutions, including the father-in-law of one of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's sons.
The case against Azhar came amid a high-level plot to undermine the KPK, in which two of the commission's deputies were arrested on bogus charges of bribery and blackmail.
Anti-graft watchdogs regularly rank Indonesia as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

(By IRWAN FIRDAUS,Associated Press Writer - Thursday, February 11)