Not Ulur Waktu, KPK Chairman Emphasizes that the Legal Bureau Did Not Attend the Pre-trial of the Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Yaqut to Prepare Documents 

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Setyo Budiyanto denied that his party deliberately did not attend the first trial of the pre-trial lawsuit of former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas at the South Jakarta District Court (PN) today. The legal office said it had handled another lawsuit so it asked for a delay.

"It's not like that, yes, there are several activities carried out by the Legal Bureau. So with some activities (later, ed) ask for a delay in time. Prepare everything," Setyo told reporters in Jakarta, Tuesday, February 24.

Setyo assessed that this request for postponement was a common practice. "This is not just a matter of attendance, but preparation of documents, answers, that's it," he said.

"So later when (the trial is ready, ed) and it has been submitted in writing by the legal bureau, it has been submitted in writing to the district court to ask for a postponement," continued the former KPK Investigation Director.

In the future, Setyo ensured that the KPK was ready to follow the course of the pretrial lawsuit. "We try to follow the timeline or schedule that has been scheduled, hopefully it will be present."

Yaqut is known to have filed a pretrial to the South Jakarta District Court (PN) on Monday, February 10. The lawsuit was registered with the number 19/Pid.Pra/2026/PN.JKT.SEL.

This pretrial was filed after the KPK announced two suspects in the corruption case for determining quotas and organizing the 2023-2024 Hajj period at the Ministry of Religion. They are former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas and staff in particular, Ishfah Abidal Aziz alias Gus Alex.

The determination of the suspect was made later, because the KPK investigated the alleged corruption by using a general investigation order (sprindik) issued on August 7, 2025.

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 KPK said that the state's losses in the 2023-2024 quota and Hajj management corruption cases were said to have reached more than Rp. 1 trillion. The suspicion began 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.

During the course of this case, a number of parties have been examined. Among them are former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas to travel agents or travel agents who organize special hajj (PIHK), including Fuad Hasan Masyhur as the boss of Maktour.