Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – The head of Indonesia's anti-corruption commission has appeared in court charged with masterminding the murder of an alleged rival for the attentions of a beautiful golf caddy.

Antasari Azhar, 56, was arrested in May, two months after businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen as he was leaving a Jakarta golf course.

Zulkarnaen, who was the director of a state-owned pharmaceuticals company, was reportedly secretly married to the 22-year-old caddy, Rani Juliani, with whom Mr Antasari was said to have had sexual relations.

But Mr Antasari claims he was set up after prosecuting high-ranking Indonesians, including an in-law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Other prominent targets have been bankers, prosecutors and members of parliament.

The commission was set up by former president Megawati Sukarnoputri in 2003 as part of the post-Suharto reform push, but there has been constant tension between it and elements of the police and the attorney-general's department.

Prosecutors allege Mr Antasari organised the hit on Zulkarnaen when the latter threatened to expose his relationship with Ms Juliani, who has been in hiding since the arrest.

Revelations that Zulkarnaen had taken the caddy as a third wife, without telling his first two wives, ensured the affair was reported in salacious detail.

Ms Juliani reportedly confirmed she had performed sexual favours for the anti-corruption boss, but in testimony Mr Antasari gave to the police, which was published in local newspapers this week, he said he met her at a four-star hotel in South Jakarta after being "curious because a golf caddy wanted to see me".

He said Zulkarnaen happened to see him at the hotel with Ms Juliani and challenged him, saying: "What are you doing with my wife here?"

Ms Juliani's evidence to police was considered so vulgar they claimed it was delaying the start of the prosecution, but it appeared in preliminary evidence yesterday regardless.

Prosecutors claimed, in explicit detail, that Mr Antasari demanded she perform sex acts on him in a room at the hotel, which she allegedly did against her will.

Mr Antasari is one of nine men on trial for the murder. The others include a former police chief, a newspaper proprietor and a businessman.

"I object to all the accusations," Mr Antasari said as the charges against him were read out in the South Jakarta district court. "I'm optimistic. I'm not involved, 1000 per cent. I will expose everything – the day he was murdered, I was in Australia."

Mr Antasari faces the death penalty for premeditated murder if the case against him is proved.

Since his arrest, he has claimed that a fugitive businessman, wanted for graft by the commission had paid bribes to two of his deputy commissioners to make his case be dropped.

There have also been alleged links to the Bank Century scandal, in which individual shareholders are believed to have benefited from a parliament-approved bailout of the ailing financial institution.

More than 400 police were in place yesterday at the start of the trial yesterday. "The case has drawn a lot of attention, so we must ensure high security at the trial venue," a police spokesman said.