JAKARTA, Indonesia – An anti-corruption court sentenced the ruling Democratic Party's former treasurer Friday (April 20th) to nearly five years in jail in a case that has caused embarrassment for the president's party, AFP reported.

Muhammad Nazaruddin was convicted of taking Rp 4.6 billion ($501,400) to award the company Duta Graha Indah a contract to build an athlete's village for the regional Southeast Asian Games last year.

"The defendant was convincingly proven guilty of committing criminal activities under the corruption law," judge Darmawati Ningsih told the Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court.

"The court sentences him to four years and 10 months in prison, and fines him 200 million rupiah ($21,800), which can be substituted with another four months prison."

Prosecutors had sought a seven-year sentence for the former treasurer, who fled the country in May last year when investigators linked him to the rigged tender and was extradited from Colombia in August.

Since the trial began in late November, Nazaruddin has claimed that several top members of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party are involved in scandals worth millions.