At the Preliminary Hearing, Experts Stated that the KPK Must Submit to the New Criminal Procedure Code

Continuation of the pre-trial hearing of former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas

JAKARTA - Criminal law expert Mudzakkir believes that handling the corruption case of the haj quota that ensnared the former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas must be based on the new KUHAP.

Mudzakkir explained that the implementation of the Criminal Procedure Code must be carried out because the investigation order (sprindik) in the name of Yaqut was issued on January 8, 2026.

"If it was mentioned that January 8 was issued a sprindik, does it apply to the old or new one? New. Because what? The date 8 is just the name process, the process of issuing an investigation. So the new one applies," said Mudzakkir, who was present as an expert in the pre-trial hearing of Yaqut, at the South Jakarta District Court, Thursday, March 5.

"Well, on that basis, experts argue that if that is the case, then everything must be subject to the new KUHAP. Why? The investigation process is already included in the new KUHAP. That is, it has been a week since it was included, which means that the processes have been included in the new KUHAP," he added.

In addition, Mudzakkir also highlighted the issue of the time of issuance of the sprindik and the determination of the suspect against Yaqut. He emphasized that the issuance of the sprindik and the determination of the suspect cannot be carried out simultaneously.

"That's not allowed. So the determination of suspects should not be the same as the sprindik or SPDP. This is a practice that we have found many of them are either not justified, it's not allowed," he said.

It is known that the KPK revealed that it issued a sprindik to trap Yaqut on January 8, 2026. A day later, the KPK issued a notification letter of the establishment of a suspect against Yaqut.

The new application of the Criminal Procedure Code in handling the Yaqut case is indeed one of the points that has been questioned. In his pretrial application, Yaqut said the KPK had violated the new Criminal Procedure Code, which made the status of the suspect who was appointed to him invalid.

"In a limited manner in the provisions of Article 90 paragraph (2) and (3) of the new Criminal Procedure Code, namely the determination of a suspect must be included in the Letter of Determination of a suspect signed by the investigator and notified to the suspect no later than one day after the letter is issued, and contain the identity of the suspect, a brief description of the case, and the rights of the suspect," said lawyer Yaqut, Mellisa Anggraini, when reading the pretrial application.