Former Religion Minister Yaqut Held in Custody until 31 March
The Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) officially placed former Religion Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas (YCQ) in detention on Thursday, 12 March 2026. This coercive measure was taken following intensive questioning of Yaqut as a suspect in an alleged corruption case involving the administration and distribution of additional hajj quotas in 2023-2024.
Asep Guntur Rahayu, Deputy for Prosecution and Execution at the KPK, stated that the detention was carried out for the first 20 days in the interests of investigation.
“From 12 to 31 March 2026, Suspect YCQ is detained at the Detention House (Rutan) Branch of the Red and White Building at the KPK,” said Asep in South Jakarta on Thursday (12/3).
The detention came just one day after a Single Judge of the South Jakarta District Court rejected a pre-trial motion filed by Yaqut. With this ruling, the suspect status assigned to Yaqut by the KPK was declared legally valid.
Yaqut was seen leaving the interrogation room at 18:45 Western Indonesian Time wearing an orange detention vest with handcuffed hands. As he was escorted to a detention vehicle, he made a statement to media regarding the allegations against him.
“I have never received a single rupiah from the case alleged against me. All the policies I implemented at that time were solely for the safety of the pilgrims,” Yaqut asserted before entering the detention vehicle.
The case originated from an additional 20,000 hajj quota provided by the Saudi Arabian Government to Indonesia. According to Article 64 of Law Number 8 of 2019, the hajj quota should be divided with a composition of 92% for regular hajj and 8% for special hajj.
However, the KPK discovered alleged irregularities whereby the additional quota was equally divided into 50% regular and 50% special. This policy allegedly caused financial losses to the state and resulted in approximately 8,400 prospective regular pilgrims who had already queued for over a decade being unable to depart.
In addition to Yaqut, the KPK has also designated former Special Staff of the Religion Minister, Ishfah Abidal Aziz (IAA), also known as Gus Alex, as a suspect. However, on this date, the KPK only placed Yaqut Cholil Qoumas in detention.
In the investigation process, the KPK has questioned several witnesses from within the Religion Ministry and from umrah travel service providers to investigate the flow of funds in a case that allegedly caused state losses of hundreds of billions of rupiah.