Nadiem Optimistic to Be Free from 10 Years of Bonis through Appeal

Nadiem Anwar Makarim attends the first appeal hearing for his verdict at the DKI Jakarta High Court, Jakarta, Wednesday (5/8/2026)/ANTARA FOTO/Fauzan/nz (ANTARA FOTO/FAUZAN)

JAKARTA - Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for the period 2019-2024 Nadiem Anwar Makarim admitted that he was optimistic that he could be free of the verdict in the Chromebook case through an appeal.

"I am optimistic for several reasons," said Nadiem as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, August 5.

The first reason, he said, was that the case strongly showed the absence of state losses or corruption elements, which even ordinary people could understand.

Because there was no state loss or corruption element, he said, the panel of judges at the first instance court found it difficult to make a decision stating that he was guilty.

Nadiem said that the difficulties were seen from the verdict which stated that he abused his authority by giving too much authority to special staff and technology consultants.

"Imagine what happens if you are sentenced to 10 years in prison because I gave too much authority. That is one example of coercion, so our case is very strong," he said.

He continued the second reason, namely the Judicial Commission (KY) which had found that there had been a violation of the judge related to his case, after his party reported that there were indications of pressure or intimidation of judges at the district court level.

In addition, he continued, the internal transformation and reform of the Prosecutor's Office, which is currently being carried out, is expected not to make judges depressed again.

"That the judge can be independent, only follow the facts of the trial and can follow their conscience," said Nadiem.

In the case of alleged corruption in the education digitization program in the form of the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) in the Ministry of Education and Culture environment in 2019-2022, Nadiem was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being proven to have committed corruption.

In addition to imprisonment, he was also sentenced to a fine of Rp. 1 billion, subsider 190 days in prison and compensation of Rp. 809.59 billion subsider 5 years in prison.

The substitute money was imposed on Nadiem after it was proven that he had received Rp809.59 billion in money from PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (PT AKAB) through PT Gojek Indonesia. Most of PT AKAB's money came from Google's investment of US$786.99 million.

In that case, Nadiem was proven to have abused his authority, causing a loss of state finances worth IDR 1.56 trillion.

The corruption, among others, was carried out by carrying out the procurement of learning facilities based on information and communication technology with Chromebook laptops and CDM in the 2020, 2021, and 2022 budget years, which were not in accordance with the procurement planning and procurement principles.

The actions of the founder of one of the technology companies were stated to have been carried out, among others, together with three other defendants who had been sentenced in different trials, namely Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam, Mulyatsyah and Sri Wahyuningsih as well as Jurist Tan, who is currently still at large.

Thus, Nadiem was proven to have violated the crime stipulated in Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law (UU) Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.