JAKARTA - Former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD considers the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to be agile in tactics in the polemics over the status of the house arrest of former Minister of Religion (Menag) Yaqut Cholil Qoumas.
This was conveyed by Mahfud through his official Instagram account, @mohmahfudmd. He said that the KPK actually did not make a mistake after changing Yaqut's detention status from house arrest (prison) to house arrest.
"In general, people see the KPK make a mistake in releasing Yaqut because of political pressure. In my opinion, this is an analysis, yes, the KPK is not wrong when releasing and re-detaining Yaqut," Mahfud said in his post, quoted on Thursday, March 26.
Mahfud assessed that Yaqut's house arrest application could be due to political pressure that cannot be denied.
"Then the KPK 'intentionally' let it leak so that the public would be noisy," he said.
"The KPK also 'deliberately' explained the granting of house arrest status with an incorrect legal basis, namely Article 108 of the Criminal Procedure Code," said Mahfud.
This condition is then called smart by Mahfud. Because, in the midst of public attacks, the KPK had to detain Yaqut again in the detention center.
"KPK was really attacked without being able to breathe. KPK then had a reason, too, politically, to detain Yaqut again," he said.
"So from the optical analysis of that, the KPK is agile and clever, it can fight political pressure by creating comparative political pressure on itself," he said.
Mahfud also said that he had used this kind of way when he was in office. "When I was the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, if there was political pressure in solving a problem, I would throw the problem to the media to get public support," he explained.
"After being reviewed by the public according to democracy, it is easy to find a solution. This is what I think the KPK is doing now. Just an analysis."
As previously reported, former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas had been under house arrest since Thursday, March 19. The transfer of the status of detention was carried out after there was a request from the family on March 17 or five days after the detention on Thursday, March 12.
This incident then became a polemic in the community. A number of parties, including former investigators, highlighted the KPK's attitude because the change of the status of detention was the first time it was carried out.
Meanwhile, the KPK said that the change in status from prison detention to house arrest was claimed by the KPK to have been reviewed and in accordance with Article 108 paragraph (1) and (11) of Law Number 20 of 2025 concerning the Criminal Procedure Code.
Article 108 paragraph (11) regulates that the transfer of type of detention can be carried out based on an investigation order which is given to the suspect, the suspect's family, and the interested parties.
After the polemics, the KPK then re-detained Yaqut at the Red and White KPK Branch Detention Center on Tuesday, March 24. This process was initiated by a health examination first at Bhayangkara Hospital Tk. I. R. Said Sukanto, East Jakarta on Monday, March 23.
It is known that Yaqut is a suspect in the corruption case of determining quotas and organizing the 2023-2024 Hajj pilgrimage at the Ministry of Religion together with staff, especially Ishfah Abidal Azis alias Gus Alex. This alleged corruption began with the provision of 20,000 additional Hajj quotas from the Saudi Arabian government to Indonesia in 2023-2024.
Based on Law Number 8 of 2019 concerning the Implementation of the Hajj and Umrah and the results of the agreement of the Panja Meeting of Commission VIII of the DPR RI, the special hajj quota should be set at 8 percent of the total quota, while the remaining 92 percent is intended for regular hajj.
However, Yaqut as the Minister of Religion at that time was suspected of unilaterally changing its composition.
Using the maneuver of issuing the Minister of Religion Decree (KMA) which was not transparently disseminated, Yaqut then divided the additional Hajj quota into a 50 percent scheme for regular Hajj and 50 percent for special Hajj.
Meanwhile, Ishfah Abidal Aziz implemented the policy by easing the rules for special hajj pilgrims.
He arranged for the filling of the remaining special hajj quota to be handed over to the proposed Special Hajj Service (PIHK) or travel agents. In fact, there should be an order of departure according to the national order number according to the law.
In return for these accelerated facilities, Gus Alex instructed his subordinates to collect illegal levies or fees from travel parties, which were ultimately charged to prospective special pilgrims. In 2023, the amount of fees set at USD5,000 or around Rp84.4 million per pilgrim.
Then, in the 2024 Hajj, the collection rate was agreed at least USD2,000 to USD2,500 per pilgrim.
The billions of rupiah from the collection of fees are suspected to have flowed into the pockets of Gus Yaqut, Gus Alex, and a number of other officials in the Ministry of Religion.
Then there is an allegation that some of the funds were deliberately prepared and used to condition the Special Hajj Committee (Pansus) which was formed by the DPR RI in mid-2024. However, a refusal was given so that no transfer by intermediaries would occur.
As a result of the actions of the two, the state is said to have lost up to IDR 622 billion. They were then suspected of violating Article 2 (1) and or Article 3 of Law Number 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption as amended by Law Number 20 of 2001 jo Article 55 paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code.
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