KPK asks PN Jaksel to postpone the trial of former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas

Former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas while visiting the KPK building (Tsa Tsia/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has asked the South Jakarta District Court (PN) to postpone the pretrial hearing for former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas today, February 24. The submission has been made by the legal bureau team.

"KPK through the Legal Bureau has submitted a postponement for today's trial," said KPK spokesperson Budi Prasetyo to reporters, Tuesday, February 24.

Budi said the request for postponement was not without reason. "Considering that the team is simultaneously following four other pretrial hearings," he said.

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.

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.