Jakarta. Disgraced former police general Ferdy Sambo was found guilty on Monday of ordering the murder of his own subordinate Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat and sentenced to death in the high-profile murder trial that draws national attention.

Presiding Judge Wahyu Iman Santoso said there are no extenuating circumstances for any leniency for the defendant.

On the contrary, the panel of judges determined many aggravating factors including the defendant's persistent denial and remorseless attitudes. The murder ruined the career of many officers involved in his conspiracy in tatters and damaged the reputation of the National Police, the court heard.

Ferdy is also convicted of obstruction of justice for attempting to cover up the murder with the help of his subordinates at the National Police headquarters. It was later found that records from security cameras around the murder scene were removed or destroyed.

"We pronounce the defendant, Ferdy Sambo, convincingly guilty by the law of participating in a premeditated murder and unlawfully causing the electronic system to disfunction,” Judge Iman said. 

According to the three-member panel, Ferdy had carefully prepared everything with the firm intention to kill Yosua. He ordered his men to take and hide Yosua's guns and made sure that the gun used by the hitman was fully loaded.

Physical evidence and witnesses' accounts indicated that Ferdy also opened fire at Yosua, the panel said. 

Prosecutors last month recommended a life sentence for Ferdy, who was the head of the National Police’s profession and security division when Yosua was murdered on July 8 last year.

Strict security measures were in force at the packed South Jakarta District Court with police installing a walk-through metal detector and searching the bag of every visitor.

The mother of the slain officer, Rosti Simanjuntak, was present in the audience during the hearing carrying the photo of Yosua posing in the police uniform.

Ferdy, 50, is the first of five defendants in the murder case to receive the verdict at the courthouse, which also tries his wife Putri Candrawathi, two former policemen Richard Eliezer and Ricky Rizal, and the couple’s personal assistant Kuat Ma’ruf.

Yosua was shot multiple times at close range by Richard on the order of Ferdy.

Prosecutors said that Ferdy initially attempted to cover up the murder by inventing a story that Yosua died in a shootout with a fellow officer over allegations that he had harassed Ferdy’s wife.

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Yosua was in fact unarmed when he was shot, police and prosecutors have said. A fellow officer had taken and hidden Yosua’s guns before he was asked to come inside Ferdy’s official residence on Jalan Duren Tiga where he was murdered.

Also during a court hearing, Putri changed the narrative from sexual harassment at Ferdy’s official residence in South Jakarta to a claim that she was raped by Yosua at a house in the Central Java town of Magelang, drawing immediate criticism from prosecutors.

While prosecutors have ruled out the rape allegation, they speculated that Putri might have been involved in a love affair with Yosua, even though it’s not obligatory for them to prove it.

According to the verdict read in turn by the judges, prosecutors are under no obligation to prove the motive for the murder.