Former Deputy Head of BGN Files Pretrial Motion Again, AGO Responds

The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Indonesia respects the legal action taken by Lodewyk Pusung, a suspect in the alleged corruption case concerning the governance of the Free Nutritious Meals programme, who has again filed a pretrial motion challenging the implementation of forced seizure measures.

Head of the Attorney General’s Office Legal Information Centre, Anang Supriatna, said in a written statement that a pretrial motion is a legal right of a suspect guaranteed by the Criminal Procedure Code.

“Therefore, please use that right in accordance with the applicable legal mechanism, and later the Prosecution as the Respondent will certainly attend and provide answers in court,” said Anang on Saturday.

Nevertheless, Anang asked the suspect to understand the new Criminal Procedure Code, which provides strict limitations regarding pretrial motions.

According to him, Article 160 paragraph (3) of Law Number 20 of 2025 states that a request regarding the legality of the implementation of forced measures may only be submitted once for the same matter.

“Because this is referred to as the third pretrial filing, the Prosecution Team will certainly first carefully examine the request, especially whether the object, basis, forced measure action, and substance being challenged are the same as the previous requests,” Anang explained.

He explained that this would form part of the Prosecution’s legal arguments in court, including regarding the court’s authority, legal standing, the object of the pretrial motion, and the limitations on filing pretrial motions as regulated in the new Criminal Procedure Code.

“Regarding the main case itself, the Prosecution remains confident that all investigative actions and forced measures carried out were based on sufficient evidence and implemented in accordance with procedural law,” said Anang.

Lodewyk registered the pretrial motion on Wednesday, 26 August 2026, and it has been registered with case number: 150/Pid.Pra/2026/PN JKT.SEL.

He seeks to challenge the seizure carried out by investigators from the Junior Attorney General for Special Crimes at the Attorney General’s Office.

The South Jakarta District Court’s Case Tracking System does not display the petition of the request or the single judge who will examine it.

Previously, Lodewyk had also challenged a similar matter at the Central Jakarta District Court. However, single judge Firman Akbar stated that the Central Jakarta District Court did not have the authority to adjudicate the pretrial motion.

Lodewyk had also challenged the validity of his suspect designation at the South Jakarta District Court. At that time, single judge Abdul Affandi declared that Lodewyk’s pretrial motion could not be accepted.

At least seven people have been processed by the Attorney General’s Office as suspects in the alleged corruption case concerning the governance of the Free Nutritious Meals programme at the National Nutrition Agency.

They are former Head of the National Nutrition Agency, Dadan Hindayana; former Deputy Heads of the National Nutrition Agency, Sony Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung; Sony’s associate, Asep Yusuf Somantri; and Commissioner of PT Yasa Artha Trimanunggal, Andri Mulyono.

Also named are Chairman of the Indonesia Food Security Review Foundation, Glory Harimas Sihombing; and Secretary of the Deputy for Promotion and Cooperation at the National Nutrition Agency, Police Brigadier General Lalu Muhammad Iwan Mahardan.

The Attorney General’s Office explained that the Free Nutritious Meals programme should have been managed by the Nutrition Service and Fulfilment Unit foundations affiliated with recipient schools.

However, in practice, many Nutrition Service and Fulfilment Unit foundations were appointed because they had affiliations with senior officials of the National Nutrition Agency. In addition, many foundations did not actually meet the requirements to become Nutrition Service and Fulfilment Unit partners.

Furthermore, there were alleged mark-ups in the procurement of goods, resulting in losses that did not support the operational implementation of the Free Nutritious Meals programme.

These included 21,801 electric motorcycles worth Rp1.03 trillion, 32,000 pairs of shoes, 31,994 tablet units, and 5,400 75-inch television units.