JAKARTA - The lawyer for former Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Mellisa Anggraini, said that none of the 432 witnesses in the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) indictment file said that his client received money from the alleged corruption case of the haj quota.
"From the 432 witnesses in the indictment, the documents are very high, thank God we have read them, no one has said that Gus Yaqut has a flow," said Mellisa, Monday, August 10.
He also said that none of the assets with a total value of more than Rp100 billion that had been confiscated by the KPK had any connection with Yaqut.
"The thing that was said at that time was that Rp100 billion was confiscated, it was not Gus Yaqut," he said.
In addition, he said Yaqut's lawyer suspected that the money of 1 million US dollars that had previously been mentioned for the Special Committee on the Rights of the DPR RI Haji Inquiry 2024 was part of extortion.
"Don't let it be a bribe. Don't let it be extortion," he said.
He explained that Yaqut's lawyer suspected that it was because his party could not test the truth of the issue.
"In the BAP (news of the examination), not a single committee was examined and made a witness. Then, how do we prove that it is not a bribe?" he said.
Mellisa said that if this was discussed in the trial, then the trial that Yaqut underwent was misguided.
"If the narrative about the Pansus bribe is to be proven in court, but the people involved are not presented at the trial, then this will only be a misguided and one-sided trial," he said.
Mellisa emphasized that Yaqut, while serving as Minister of Religion, determined the allocation of additional Hajj quotas for regular and special Hajj based on the interests of the pilgrims.
"In the documents, in all his meetings, his instructions are only one, whatever our policies, they must be oriented towards the interests of the congregation. So, there are no other interests," he said.
"Later we will convey in the courtroom all the allegations that exist. The charges that are contained by the prosecutor tomorrow, of course, we will test it," he said.
The KPK began investigating the case of alleged corruption in Indonesian Hajj quotas for 2023-2024 on August 9, 2025.
As of March 30, 2026, the KPK has named four suspects in the case. They are Yaqut and former staff in particular, Ishfah Abidal Aziz alias Gus Alex, then Maktour Operations Director Ismail Adham and former Chairman of the Union of Tour Travel Haji Umrah of the Republic of Indonesia Asrul Aziz Taba.
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