 Antasari Azhar said the case was revenge for his anti-corruption work |
Former Indonesian corruption chief Antasari Azhar has been jailed for 18 years for murder.
Azhar was convicted of ordering the murder of wealthy businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen last year over an alleged love triangle with a female golf caddy.
Prosecutors had called for the death sentence for Azhar in a trial that gripped the country.
Azhar said he was innocent and the charge had been revenge for his work unveiling corruption among officials.
Judge Herri Swantoro told the packed Jakarta court room Azhar was guilty of "participating in persuading the carrying out of a premeditated murder".
He said the sentence was "not intended as revenge, but to make the defendant aware of his mistakes".
Azhar, 56, said he respected the court's verdict but that "as a citizen and law-enforcer" he intended to appeal against it, the AFP news agency reported.
Azhar's lawyer said the court had ignored evidence and based the verdict on police documents alone.
"The verdict did not touch on the evidence. For us, this trial was just a formality," the Associated Press news agency quoted Juniver Girsang as saying.
In a separate trial on Thursday, senior police officer Williardi Wizar was jailed for 12 years for recruiting the five men who carried out the killing - currently serving sentences of up to 18 years each - and businessman Sigit Haryo Wibisono was sentenced to 15 years for financing the operation.
Election promise
The trial became known in Indonesia as the "sex, lies and golf scandal".
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The BBC's Karishma Vaswani said few people were surprised by the guilty verdict, but that the jail term was unexpected, given the prosecution's call for the death sentence.
The sentence is being seeing by many as another example of how Indonesia's judiciary favours some but punishes others, says our correspondent.
But it is longer than those given to other prominent figures convicted of similar charges.
Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of former President Suharto, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for the murder of a supreme court judge.
He served less than a third of the sentence before being released in 2006.
Azhar was head of the country's anti-corruption commission, or KPK, until he was suspended on his arrest last May.
As Indonesia's top corruption fighter, he oversaw a number of successful investigations into government officials.
Reducing the country's widespread corruption was a key promise of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's re-election campaign last year.
Corruption is seen as a major impediment to foreign investment in Indonesia and is a major source of discontent among ordinary citizens.
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