Ahead of Appeal Hearing, Nadiem's Lawyers Urge Judges to Re-examine Witnesses and 2 Key Pieces of Evidence
The legal advisory team for former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Nadiem Makarim, has requested the High Court panel of judges to re-examine a number of facts, witnesses, experts, and pieces of evidence during the appeal hearing scheduled for 5 August 2026. The request was made because the legal team believes there are still several trial facts that were not comprehensively considered in the first-instance verdict.
The legal advisory team views the appeal process as a momentum to ensure the ruling is built upon all facts revealed during the trial. They consider that several aspects still need to be re-examined, ranging from the application of the elements of criminal corruption, causality, to the consideration of witness statements, expert testimony, and evidence presented during the trial.
Furthermore, the legal team also disputes the basis for calculating state losses used in the case. According to them, the calculation methodology in the BPKP Audit Report still needs to be tested again through the appeal trial process.
The legal advisory team has also requested the High Court to re-examine a number of witnesses and experts. These include a witness from GoTo regarding the corporate ownership structure and transactions, a representative from the Government Procurement Policy Institute (LKPP) concerning the mechanism of the Absolute Responsibility Statement (SPTJM), Chromebook vendors regarding price formation, as well as forensic accounting experts and criminal law experts.
According to the legal team, this request was submitted because the examination of the case file indicated that the documents forming the basis of the appeal-level examination did not yet contain all the facts revealed during the trial, including a number of pieces of evidence, the BPKP Audit Report, and the statements of several witnesses deemed important.
A representative of the Legal Advisory Team, Dodi S. Abdulkadir, stated that the appeal process is not only aimed at testing the first-instance verdict but also at ensuring that all trial facts are considered in their entirety. ‘The appeal is a mechanism to ensure that no facts, evidence, or witness statements are missed or not fully considered. We hope the Appellate Panel of Judges can examine this case thoroughly so that the resulting verdict truly reflects material truth and a sense of justice,’ he said on Monday, 3 August 2026.