Antasari’s lawyer Boyamin Saiman claimed that his client had told him that he would rather withdraw his request for clemency than admit to having committed the crime.

“When requesting clemency, we firmly stated that Pak Antasari did not commit the crime. So he did not plead guilty in exchange for the pardon,” Boyamin said on Wednesday at the South Jakarta District Court after receiving the presidential decree granting his client’s clemency.

"The grant of clemency means that the President has also accepted our claim that Pak Antasari was innocent," added Boyamin, who chairs the Indonesian Antigraft Society (MAKI).

(Read also: Minister supports clemency for Antasari due to 'irregularities' in case)

President Jokowi has granted six years clemency for Antasari, who was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment in 2010 for masterminding the drive-by shooting of Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, a director of state-owned pharmaceutical company Rajawali Putra Banjaran.

With the clemency, Antasari is no longer required to report his whereabouts to Tangerang Penitentiary in Banten every month until 2022 after serving seven-and-a-half years of his sentence.(jun)

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