Denies Nadiem Makarim DPO Corruption Case Of Kemendikbudristek Laptop, Hotman: In Jakarta

The attorney for former Minister of Education and Technology Nadiem Makarim, Hotman Paris Hutapea (second from the right), spoke at a press conference in South Jakarta, Tuesday (10/6/2025). ANTARA/Nadia Putri Rahmani

JAKARTA - The attorney for the former Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Mendikbudristek) Nadiem Makarim, Hotman Paris Hutapea, denied that his client was on the wanted list (DPO) for the alleged corruption case in the procurement of Chromebook laptops at the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2019-2022.

"Since yesterday Nadiem was in Jakarta. He is ready every time to cooperate. How to enter the DPO if he is here? Nadiem Makarim is in good health," Hotman said at a press conference in South Jakarta, Tuesday, June 10, which was confiscated by Antara.

Hotman said that the press conference held by his party to prove that his client was ready to provide clarification if summoned by investigators to the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) at the Attorney General's Office.

"This press conference is to explain to the public that Nadiem will cooperate, respect the authority of the Prosecutor's Office, be ready at all times, and deny it as if he ran away or went somewhere," he said.

Hotman further emphasized that Nadiem Makarim had nothing to do with the three special staff (stafsus) when his client served as Minister of Education and Culture. The three staff are total Handayani (FH), Jurist Tan (JT), and Ibrahim Arief (IA).

"When it comes to staff members, right, there is an official committee. Nadiem Makarim has nothing to do with it," he said.

Meanwhile, another attorney for Nadiem Makarim, Mohamad Ali Nurdin, said that until now there had never been a summons or search by investigators against Nadiem.

It is known that former Minister of Education and Technology Nadiem Makarim on Tuesday morning held a press conference to respond to investigators at the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes (Jampidsus) at the AGO who were investigating the alleged corruption case in the procurement of education digitization in the form of a Chromebook laptop at the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2019-2022.

Head of the Legal Information Center (Kapuspenkum) of the Attorney General's Office, Harli Siregar, said that investigators were investigating allegations of malicious conspiracy by various parties by directing a technical team to conduct technical studies related to the procurement of equipment assistance related to technology education in 2020.

"In order to be directed at the use of laptops based on the Chrome operating system," he said.

In fact, he said, the use of Chromebooks is not a necessity. This is because in 2019 a trial of the use of 1,000 Chromebooks by the Pustekom Kemendikbudristek and the results were ineffective.

"Why is it not effective? Because we know that it is based on the internet, while in Indonesia the internet is not all the same," he added.

From this experience, the technical team also recommended using specifications with the Windows operating system. However, at that time, the Ministry of Education and Culture replaced the study with a new study that recommended using Chrome system operations.