Former Minister of Sports Dito Ariotedjo Admits to Being Investigated by the KPK for a New Sprindik Case of Hajj Quota Corruption

Former Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora) Dito Ariotedjo/PHOTO: Wardhany Tsa Tsia-VOI

JAKARTA - Former Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora) Dito Ariotedjo was completed by investigators of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) today. He admitted that he had given testimony as a witness to the corruption case of determining quotas and organizing the 2023-2024 hajj at the Ministry of Religion.

This was conveyed by Dito when he left the KPK Red and White building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta at around 14.08 WIB. He underwent an examination from 09.40 WIB or about four hours.

"This was an examination for a new sprindik," Dito told reporters, Tuesday, June 30.

The new investigation order (sprindik) referred to by Dito, for two suspects, namely the Director of Operations of Maktour Travel Ismail Adhan and the former General Chairman of the Union of Tour Travel Haji Umrah of the Republic of Indonesia (Kesthuri) Asrul Azis Taba.

Dito admitted that he received 10 questions from investigators which were not much different from his examination in January.

One of them, regarding the visit to Saudi Arabia that he made with President Joko Widodo's entourage (Jokowi) in 2023. It is known that in a meeting with the local government, a number of discussions were carried out including on the addition of the Hajj quota.

"Yesterday I was here for the first time for the first suspect, Gus Yaqut (Religious Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas) and Gus Alex (Ishfah Abidal Azis), this is the second private, yes, the information is added to the information about that only," he said.

As previously reported, the KPK has named four suspects in the alleged corruption case for determining quotas and organizing the 2023-2024 Hajj pilgrimage at the Ministry of Religion. They are former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, former Special Staff to the Minister of Religion Ishfah Abidal Azis alias Gus Alex, Director of Operations of Maktour Travel Ismail Adhan, and former General Chairman of the Indonesian Republic of Hajj Umrah Travel Union (Kesthuri) Asrul Azis Taba.

The investigation began with the distribution of 20,000 additional Hajj quotas given by the Government of Saudi Arabia to Indonesia in 2023 and 2024. Based on Law Number 8 of 2019 concerning the Implementation of the Hajj and Umrah and the agreement of the Panja Commission VIII of the DPR RI, the additional quota should be divided with a composition of 92 percent for regular Hajj and 8 percent for special Hajj.

However, the KPK suspects that there has been a policy change through the issuance of a Minister of Religious Affairs Decree that divides the additional quota into 50 percent for regular hajj and 50 percent for special hajj. The policy was then implemented by easing the mechanism for filling the special hajj quota, which no longer completely refers to the national order number.

In the process, the KPK suspects that there has been a collection of fees from a number of Special Haji Organizers (PIHK) in exchange for the acceleration of the departure of pilgrims. The collection is said to be imposed on prospective special pilgrims with a maximum of 5,000 US dollars per pilgrim in 2023 and 2,000 to 2,500 US dollars per pilgrim in 2024.

From the results of the investigation, Ismail Adhan allegedly gave Ishfah Abidal Azis 30 thousand US dollars and 5,000 US dollars and 16 thousand Saudi riyals to the then Director General of Haji and Umrah Implementation of the Ministry of Religion, Abdul Latief. This act is suspected of making Maktour obtain an illegal profit of around IDR 27.8 billion.

Meanwhile, Asrul Azis Taba allegedly gave money amounting to 406 thousand US dollars. From this gift, eight PIHKs belonging to Kesthuri are said to have obtained illegal profits of up to Rp40.8 billion.

The KPK also suspects that some of the funds from the fee collection were prepared to condition the Special Committee (Pansus) for the DPR RI Hajj, which was formed in mid-2024. However, the alleged delivery was not realized due to the rejection of the party who would receive it.

As a result of the alleged actions of the suspects, the state is estimated to have suffered losses of up to IDR 622 billion. The KPK charged the suspects with Article 2 paragraph (1) and/or Article 3 of the Corruption Law in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.