Former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas Meets Call Related to KPK Hajj Quota Corruption Case Today

JAKARTA - Former Minister of Religion (Menag) Yaqut Cholil Qoumas has fulfilled the call of investigators from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) regarding the corruption case of determining quotas and organizing the 2023-2024 Hajj pilgrimage at the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) today, December 16.

Yaqut arrived at around 11.42 WIB at the KPK Red and White building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta. He was accompanied by a number of people, including Anna Hasbie as a spokesperson and Mellisa Anggraeni.

There was no statement made by Yaqut when he arrived at the anti-corruption commission's office. In fact, he seemed to be in a hurry without stopping his steps.

"Please, yes, please, I'll go in first, please," he said in a hurry.

Meanwhile, KPK spokesperson Budi Prasetyo said investigators would investigate several things from Yaqut. "To complete the information that has previously been obtained, both from the examination of a number of witnesses and the activities of searches that have also been carried out in several places," he told reporters.

Then, investigators will also confirm the findings obtained while in Saudi Arabia a few days ago.

"So later, when we look at the construction of the case, this is based on the addition of a quota for the hajj of 20,000, which was then discredited, 50 percent for regular hajj and 50 percent for special hajj."

As previously reported, the KPK has issued a general investigation order (sprindik) for alleged corruption in adding quotas and organizing the hajj. This institution reasoned that the issuance was carried out so that they could carry out coercive efforts.

The Sprindik general uses Article 2 Paragraph 1 and/or Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2021 jo article 55 paragraph 1-1 of the Criminal Code. This means that there is state loss that occurs due to this corrupt practice.

The state's losses in the 2023-2024 quota and Hajj corruption cases are said to have reached more than Rp1 trillion. This number is still increasing because it is only the initial count of the KPK which continues to coordinate with the Financial Supervisory Board (BPK).

This case started with the provision of 20,000 additional Hajj quotas from the Saudi Arabian government for Indonesia to reduce the queue of pilgrims.

However, recently the distribution turned out to be problematic because it was divided equally, namely 50 percent for regular hajj and 50 percent for special hajj.

In fact, according to the law, the distribution should be 92 percent for regular hajj and 8 percent for special hajj.