JAKARTA - Former Minister of Religion (Menag) Yaqut Cholil Qoumas provided additional explanations regarding the calculation of state losses in the corruption case of determining quotas and the implementation of the 2023-2024 Hajj pilgrimage at the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) to the Financial Audit Agency (BPK).
Yaqut's lawyer, Mellisa Anggraini, said the additional testimony was given today, February 11. The summons was said to have been made after his party wrote to the BPK.
"We have officially requested that the clarification process be carried out directly through the summoning of the BPK RI, as is also applied to other parties," Mellisa said in a written statement, Wednesday, February 11.
Mellisa said that this summons was an important and worthy thing. "Because it gives us room to provide additional explanations, clarifications, and confrontations on the previous examination material directly to the BPK RI inspection team," he said.
Meanwhile, Mellisa said that the BPK had indeed examined her client at the KPK office. However, her party still wrote because the substantive examination was not carried out by the KPK as it should have been.
Mellisa also explained that the Minister of Religion's Decree Number 130 of 2024 was drafted and determined by taking into account the legal and technical aspects of the implementation of the hajj, especially in order to maintain the safety, service, and interests of the hajj pilgrims.
The decision is seen as not intended to benefit individuals or other parties.
"We also emphasize that there has never been a flow of funds in any form to Mr. Yaqut Cholil Qoumas related to the 2024 Hajj quota policy," he said.
"We hope that all the information and explanations presented today can provide balanced and objective information to the BPK RI in the process of calculating state losses due to the 2024 Hajj quota policy," continued Mellisa.
Yaqut is known to have been examined by the KPK on Friday, January 30. He was then questioned in his capacity as a witness after being named a suspect.
From the observation at the location, Yaqut completed the examination as a witness to the corruption case on the determination of quotas and the implementation of the 2023-2024 hajj pilgrimage at the Ministry of Religion at around 17.40 WIB. He initially explained that he had given information to the KPK investigators.
"I conveyed what I knew, in full, yes, to the investigator," said Yaqut, who underwent a 4.5-hour examination.
Yaqut did not answer further questions about his examination. He was also silent when asked about Fuad Hasan's claim that Maktour only received a slightly additional quota for the Hajj from the Ministry of Religion.
This claim was made by Fuad when he underwent an examination on Monday, January 26. At that time, the businessman even said that the quota for the Maktour special hajj quota had been drastically reduced in 2024.
As previously reported, the KPK has 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.
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