Hajj Quota Scandal: Pilgrims Allegedly Extorted Fees up to 113 Million Rupiah Per Person
The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has revealed detailed practices of fraud in the management of additional hajj quotas for 2023-2024. Former Religion Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas (YCQ) is suspected of allowing the collection of acceleration fees for special hajj departures at extraordinary rates.
Based on investigators’ findings, travel agencies or Special Hajj Organisers (PIHK) were required to deposit funds ranging from US$2,600 to US$7,000 per pilgrim. When converted to current Indonesian rupiah, this value reaches 42 million to 113 million rupiah per hajj quota.
KPK’s Deputy for Enforcement and Execution, Asep Guntur Rahayu, stated that the funds were collected by individuals within the Religion Ministry under the direction of the minister’s special staff, Ishfah Abidal Aziz, also known as Gus Alex. “Based on examination, the acceleration fee was provided to YCQ, IAA, and several officials at the Religion Ministry,” said Asep at KPK’s Red and White Building in Jakarta.
The KPK strongly suspects that Yaqut’s policy changing the additional quota distribution scheme to 50% regular hajj and 50% special hajj was the main gateway to this corruption. This scheme violated Law Number 8 of 2019, which should have allocated 92% to regular pilgrims who had already been waiting for decades.
The practice of “buying and selling” quotas had direct impacts on regular hajj pilgrims. Approximately 10,000 quotas that should have gone to pilgrims in the long queue were diverted to the special hajj route to pursue fee payments from private travel agencies. The KPK described this modus operandi as a form of betrayal against the interests of Indonesian hajj pilgrims.
To date, the KPK is still investigating the involvement of several owners of major travel agencies who are suspected of being the main sources of these funds. Yaqut Cholil Qoumas was formally detained at KPK detention since 12 March 2026 after his pre-trial motion was rejected by the South Jakarta District Court.