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lawyer representing former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) chief Antasari Azhar has called on President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to pardon the former prosecutor for a previous murder conviction.

Antasari'€™s lawyer, Maqdir Ismail, made the call following the State Palace'€™s public remarks that the President was currently in doubt over whether he would approve Antasari'€™s clemency proposal, because Antasari'€™s eligibility for an appeal for clemency from the President has expired according to the law.

The existing rule says that a graft convict has a maximum of one year to submit a clemency proposal after the Supreme Court confirms the respective convict'€™s sentence as legal and binding. However, Ansari submitted his proposal to the Supreme Court in February, 2015, nearly five years after the Supreme Court rejected his cassation plea in late 2010.

The Supreme Court recently informed Jokowi that Antasari'€™s time frame to receive clemency had expired, reminding the President that granting the former KPK chief clemency would violate the existing law.

Maqdir said that there was no law that could limit the President when it comes to exercising his prerogative, including making a decision whether to grant clemency to a criminal convict.

'€œIt'€™s is the right of criminal convicts as citizens whenever they want to file their clemency proposals to the President,'€ Maqdir told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Magdir said that his call was not without basis because under the former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s administration, the government granted clemency to Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby despite the fact that her time frame to apply for clemency had expired.

The clemency, which cut five years off Corby'€™s 20-year prison term, was made on recommendation from the Supreme Court and other relevant ministries in May 2014. '€œCorby'€™s proposal was submitted to the President quite a while after her sentence was legal and binding,'€ Maqdir said.

Antasari was convicted of killing Nasruddin Zulkarnaen, then director of state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Putra Rajawali Banjaran, in a drive-by shooting.

The court found that Nasruddin was murdered after he had found out about Antasari'€™s clandestine relationship with a woman.

Due to the incident occurring soon after former Bank Indonesia deputy governor and former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono'€™s in-law Aulia Pohan was jailed after a KPK investigation, speculation was rife that the murder was doctored to topple Antasari from his top position in the KPK.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H Laoly confirmed earlier that the President is seeking to release Antasari on health and humanitarian grounds, but in order to do so he has to resolve several legal problems relating to the expired time frame.

Yasonna said that Antasari still has a chance to be released as the Constitution stipulates that the President has the prerogative to grant clemency.

'€œLet'€™s consider the recent release of Papuan convicts. Clemency was given to them as [the government] considered them political detainees,'€ he said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Antasari had always maintained that he was innocent and the case was a set up. But he eventually filed the clemency proposal amid deteriorating health. Antasari'€™s appeal and case review request have been rejected by the Supreme Court.

Pleading for clemency is not the first option for many convicts as it requires them to admit to committing the crime they were convicted of.