Nasrudin murdered by professional: Witness

An expert witness testifying in the trial of former antigraft head Antasari Azhar, charged with murdering businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen, said Tuesday it was almost impossible that the drive-by shooting had been done by an amateur.

"The recoil from a revolver is quite strong, so it’d be almost impossible for a non-professional shooter to hit an object twice, accurately and single-handed, from a moving motorcycle," Roy Haryanto, a national shooting champion between 2003 and 2008 and a trainer for the Indonesian Army's shooting squad, said in his testimony at the South Jakarta District Court.

Asked by a defense lawyer whether anyone could have carried out the drive-by shooting, Roy said, "No, unless he had fired between 3,000 and 4,000 bullets with the same gun in training."

Antasari, the former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chairman, is standing trial for plotting the murder of Nasruddin, a director at state pharmaceutical company PT Putra Rajawali Banjaran.

Nasruddin was killed in March in a drive-by shooting as he was leaving the Moderland golf course in Tangerang.

In their indictment, the prosecutors said Nasruddin had caught Antasari red-handed with his wife Rhani Juliani at the Grand Mahakam Hotel, and used the incident to blackmail Antasari.

Prosecutors allege this was what drove Antasari to arrange for Nasruddin to be murdered, with help from former South Jakarta Police Sr. Comr. Williardi Wizar, who allegedly hired the hit men, and media mogul Sigid Haryo Wibisono, who allegedly paid for the hit.