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A well-known forensic doctor testified on Thursday that murdered businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen was shot from a distance, contradicting statements he previously made that the victim was killed at close range.

“According to the nature of the wounds, the shots were fired from a long distance,” said Dr. Abdul Mun’im Idris, who was presented by prosecutors at the South Jakarta District Court to testify in the murder trial of former antigraft agency chairman Antasari Azhar.

The doctor said if the shots had been fired from close range there would have been physical evidence on the body, like gunpowder marks, which he did not find during the autopsy.

The testimony runs counter to the belief that Nasrudin was shot in the head on March 14 through the window of his BMW by two men riding a motorcycle.

The alleged shooter, Daen, is being tried separately for the murder.

Antasari is accused of having orchestrated the murder, with another defendant in the case, Wiliardi Wizar, believed to have hired Daen and his accomplices.

Mun’im’s new testimony seems to support the claim of one of the suspected killers, Hendrikus Kia Walen, that the murder was actually carried out by a secret police team to frame Antasari.

“Police were involved in the murder case but the investigation didn’t reach them,” Hendrikus told reporters on Tuesday when he was presented as a witness in Antasari’s trial.

Mun’im, however, said that by the time he performed his forensic examination of Nasrudin, the victim’s body had already been “manipulated.”

“The body had been manipulated. The gunshot wounds had been stitched closed, his hair had been shaved and his clothes had all been taken off,” said Mu’nim, adding that this made it difficult to conduct a more accurate examination.

“Someone else’s hands had touched the body before I did,” he added.

He said an officer from the National Police had asked him to omit the word “manipulated” from his official report, but Mu’nim said he had refused. “He can’t tell me what to do.”

The prosecution reminded the court that Nasrudin had received treatment at the intensive care unit prior to his death.

Mun’im’s testimony on Thursday contradicted statements he made in October at the Tangerang District Court in the separate trial of the four defendants accused of carrying out the murder.

At that time, the doctor said that Nasrudin was possibly shot from a range as close as 60 centimeters, similar to the testimony he gave during the police’s initial investigation into the case.

None of the lawyers on Thursday questioned Mun’im about the contradicting testimonies.

The second witness to take the stand, Maruli Simanjuntak, a ballistics expert from the National Police, said bullet fragments found at the crime scene had come from a .38 caliber Smith and Watson pistol.

This was different from the finding by Mun’im, who said that the two bullets that killed Nasrudin measured 9 millimeters and were possibly fired from an FN pistol.