JAKARTA - Holding a gun in his gloved hand, former Indonesian police inspector general Ferdy Sambo allegedly finished off his wounded bodyguard with a bullet to the back of his head.

He then shot at a wall near the victim, Brigadier Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, several times.

The bodyguard was “still moving in pain”, but Ferdy “wanted to make sure he would have no life in him”, prosecutor Sugeng Hariadi told the South Jakarta district court on Monday.

Ferdy, 49, then shoved the slain man’s gun back into his hand and manipulated it to fire at the opposite wall, before leaving Mr Nofriansyah’s gun close to his body, staging the scene of a shoot-out gone awry.

Mr Sugeng said that “with Ferdy’s cunning wit to eliminate his tracks and to hide his act of taking the victim’s life... he made it seem like a shoot-out had taken place” between Mr Nofriansyah, 27, and junior officer Richard Eliezer Pudihang Lumliu, 24.

Details of how the disgraced head of internal affairs at the national police had orchestrated the killing of Mr Nofriansyah at his residence on July 8 were revealed in the first court hearing on Monday.

Ferdy, who was dishonourably discharged in August, faces charges of premeditated murder, which carries a death sentence, and the obstruction of justice.

The police had initially claimed that Mr Nofriansyah was killed in a shoot-out with another police officer after he tried to sexually harass Ferdy’s wife, Putri Candrawathi, during a trip to Magelang, Central Java.

They later retracted this account, citing sufficient evidence that showed that Ferdy had masterminded the murder.

In the 97-page indictment, prosecutors said Ferdy was furious after hearing his wife’s “one-sided account”.

Putri, 49, had called Ferdy while she was away to complain, and repeated her allegation when she and Mr Nofriansyah returned to Jakarta in the afternoon of July 8.

Ferdy then asked Richard: “Do you have the guts to shoot Yosua?”

Richard responded that he was ready, the prosecutor added.

Mr Sugeng told the court: “Ferdy shouted loudly to Richard, ‘Woy, you shoot, you shoot quickly. Hurry up, you shoot!’ Richard, in line with the evil plan that has been hatched beforehand, aimed his Glock-17 three to four times at the victim until he fell and lost a lot of blood.”

Ferdy then fired the fatal shot.

The saga has gripped the nation’s attention for months with its soap opera-like twists and turns. Inconsistent police statements also exposed a web of purported cover-ups that has eroded public trust in the force.

The case had prompted President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, to call for a thorough investigation.

Dozens of officers have been rounded up and questioned over the incident. Besides Ferdy, four other people - his wife, two police officers and an assistant - are facing charges of premeditated murder in relation to Mr Nofriansyah’s death.