Former Education Minister Nadiem Faces Prosecution Hearing in Chromebook Corruption Case Today

Nadiem was examined as a defendant in the case on Monday (11 May). The judge then scheduled Nadiem’s prosecution hearing for today. “So it remains on the 13th (May) for the prosecution,” said the chief judge Purwanto S Abdullah. Nadiem is accused of corruption related to the procurement of Chromebook laptops while serving as Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. The project is said to have caused a state loss of Rp 2.1 trillion. Prosecutors state that the calculation of the state loss of Rp 2.1 trillion comes from the overpricing of Chromebooks amounting to Rp 1,567,888,662,716.74 (Rp 1.5 trillion). Then, the procurement of unnecessary and unbeneficial CDM amounting to USD 44,054,426 or equivalent to approximately Rp 621,387,678,730.00 (Rp 621 billion). Besides Nadiem, there are three other defendants in this case. They are Sri Wahyuningsih, former Director of Primary Schools in the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Basic Education, and Secondary Education from 2020-2021; Mulyatsyah, former Director of Junior High Schools in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology in 2020; and Ibrahim Arief (IBAM), a consultant for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology during Nadiem’s era. Sri and Mulyatsyah have been found guilty. Sri was sentenced to 4 years in prison and Mulyatsyah to 4.5 years in prison. Meanwhile, Nadiem’s former special staff named Jurist Tan remains a fugitive. Then, Ibrahim Arief or Ibam also faced a verdict yesterday. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison and a fine of Rp 500 million, if the fine is not paid, it will be replaced with imprisonment for 120 days.