Khalid Basalamah Calls Special Hajj Offers For His Congregation Which Turns Out To Be From An Additional Problem Quota

The owner of the Uhud Tour travel agency, Khalid Zeed Abdullah or Khalid Basalamah/PHOTO: Wardhany Tsa Tsia-VOI

JAKARTA - Lecturer and owner of the Uhud Tour travel agency, Khalid Zeed Abdullah or Khalid Basalamah admitted that he had dispatched hundreds of worshipers using additional hajj quotas which were later suspected of having problems.

He conveyed this after undergoing an examination for 7.5 hours from 11.03 to 18.48 WIB at the KPK's Red and White building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Tuesday, September 9.

Khalid initially said he used to dispatch his congregation using the furoda hajj quota.

Haji furoda ini diketahui menggunakan visa mujamalah yang merupakan an invitation resmi langsung dari Pemerintah Arab Saudi. Sehingga, keberadaannya di luar dari haji reguler maupun haji khusus.

"So I was in the position, previously the same congregation (passing the pilgrimage with Hajj, red) furodes, and then we paid the furoda, they were ready to leave for the furoda," Khalid told reporters.

However, he diverted the departure using a special hajj quota after receiving an offer from Ibnu Masud, who is a Commissioner of PT Muhibbah Mulia Wisata.

"A person named Ibnu Masud who owns PT Muhibbah from Pekanbaru offered us this visa so that, in the end, we joined with the visa on his trip in Muhibbah. So we were registered as pilgrims there," he said.

"I am a congregation at PT Muhibbah, which belongs to Ibnu Mas'ud. So, our position is actually a victim of PT Muhibbah which is owned by Ibnu Mas'ud. We were all furodes. Well, it was offered to move using this visa, "continued Khalid.

Khalid admitted that he did not know that this special hajj quota was then problematic and the case was handled by the KPK. "The language is Ibnu Masud to us, PT Muhibah (can, red) an additional 20,000 quota from the Ministry of Religion. Because we received it officially from the Ministry of Religion and I was registered as a congregation at PT Muhibbah," he said.

Meanwhile, Uhud Tour is claimed by Khalid to have not received an additional hajj quota. This is because his Hajj and Umrah travel does not have a permit as a special hajj organizer (PIHK).

Meanwhile, the KPK has also examined Ibnu Masud on August 28. However, it has not been conveyed what investigators have investigated.

Previously reported, the KPK has issued a general investigation warrant (sprindik) for alleged corruption in the addition of quotas and the implementation of Hajj in 2023-2024. This institution reasoned that the issuance was carried out so that they could make forced efforts.

The general Sprindik uses Article 2 Paragraph 1 and/or Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2021 in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code. This means that there are state losses that occur due to this corrupt practice.

State losses in the corruption case of quota and Hajj for the period 2023-2024 are said to have reached more than IDR 1 trillion. This amount is still increasing because it is only the initial calculation of the KPK which continues to coordinate with the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).

This case began with the provision of 20,000 additional Hajj quotas from the Saudi Arabian government for Indonesia to reduce queues for pilgrims.

However, 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, based on the law, the distribution should be 92 percent for regular Hajj and 8 percent for special Hajj.

The distribution was allegedly due to money from the Hajj and Umrah travel parties as well as the associations that oversee the Ministry of Religion. Then, they sell the additional quotas obtained to prospective pilgrims.