KPK Calls Khalid Basalamah Congregation Should Still Queue Despite Using Special Hajj Quota

KPK Spokesperson Budi Prasetyo (Tsa Tsia/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said that the Uhud Tour congregation belonging to the preacher Khalid Zeed Abdullah or Khalid Basalamah should still queue even though they leave with a special hajj quota.

This was conveyed by the KPK spokesman Budi Prasetyo when asked about the shift in the visa of Khalid pilgrims departing in 2024, namely from furode Hajj to special Hajj. Prospective pilgrims usually have queued for years so they cannot go directly to the Holy Land.

"In general, in the departure of the special quota, there is also a queue like that, right, meaning that when there is an addition, it means that we return to the queue that should be," Budi told reporters quoted on Tuesday, September 16.

This condition made investigators explore several things when examining Khalid. "How about the transition, why then switch to a special quota as soon as possible, including departure," said Budi.

"Maybe from the congregation's side, we don't know, because maybe we did know that we left that year, so we explored it from the side of the owner of the travel bureau," he continued.

According to information about pilgrims who did not queue to leave, Budi said, they were also investigated from other witnesses. "That is also included in the investigation material that is being investigated to complete how this is the mechanism in the field," he said.

Khalid is known to have been examined as a witness in this case on Tuesday, September 9. At that time, he admitted to shifting the Hajj visa for his congregation from furoda to a special pilgrimage whose quota turned out to be problematic because he received an offer from Muhibbah Mulia Wisata.

This preacher 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 Muhibbah (can you get, red) an additional 20,000 quota from the Ministry of Religion," Khalid said at the KPK's Merah Putih building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Tuesday, September 9.

"Because we discussed it officially from the Ministry of Religion, we received it and I was registered as a congregation at PT Muhibbah," he continued.

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.

Later, the distribution of problems was allegedly due to money from the Hajj and Umrah travel parties as well as the associations that oversee the Ministry of Religion. After getting the allotment, they sold the additional quota to prospective pilgrims.