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ormer Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chief Antasari Azhar, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to 18 years behind bars after the KPK arrested in 2008 a man who was related through marriage to a sitting president, has submitted a clemency request to President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, his lawyer confirmed on Monday.

The lawyer, Boyamin Saiman, said his client expected to receive Jokowi'€™s final say on the clemency request sometime this month or next, adding that he hoped Jokowi would agree that the murder charges had been fabricated, likely in retaliation for Antasari'€™s aggressive anticorruption efforts with the KPK.

'€œWe hope that Pak Jokowi will grant clemency to my client by freeing him from the sentence, or at least granting him a sentence reduction. The case against Pak Antasari had been marred by irregularities since the investigation and through to the trial,'€ Boyamin told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Antasari filed the clemency request after all his legal attempts to challenge his 18-year-prison sentence were rejected. Those attempts included a cassation petition in 2010 and a judicial review request in 2012, both by the Supreme Court (MA).

Boyamin said that although the Supreme Court had advised Jokowi to use a second opinion, that the President should stick to his prerogative as head of the country.

'€œI have heard that the MA sent its recommendation to the President. As the recommendation is confidential, I don'€™t yet know anything about it. But, we beg the President to exercise his prerogative independently, because whatever the recommendation says about our proposal, it is just an administrative requirement before the President issues a final say,'€ Boyamin said.

The South Jakarta District Court, despite many irregularities in the case, found Antasari guilty of masterminding the murder of businessman Nasruddin Zulkarnaen.

Nasruddin, who was director of state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Putra Rajawali Banjaran, was killed in a drive-by shooting near the Modernland golf course in Tangerang, Banten, in March 2009.

The case against Antasari emerged just months after the antigraft body arrested Aulia Pohan, the father-in-law of then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s son, Agus Yudhoyono, in a late 2008 graft case.

In the indictment, prosecutors said Nasruddin had caught Antasari with Rhani, Nasruddin'€™s third wife, in a hotel room in South Jakarta, adding that Nasruddin used the incident as leverage to blackmail Antasari for company promotions.