Ibrahim Arief Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Corruption in Chromebook Case
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Technology consultant at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam, has been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of involvement in corruption related to the alleged Chromebook corruption case.
Presiding Judge Purwanto Abdullah stated that Ibam was proven, among other things, to have carried out the procurement of information and communication technology-based learning facilities in the form of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) that did not comply with the procurement planning and various procurement principles, thereby causing harm to state finances totalling Rp5.26 trillion in the case.
“The defendant is hereby declared proven legally and convincingly guilty of committing the criminal act of corruption jointly as per the subsidised indictment,” said the Presiding Judge during the verdict reading at the Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday.
In addition to the prison sentence, Ibam was also imposed a fine of Rp500 million, with the provision that if not paid, it would be replaced with imprisonment for 120 days.
Thus, Ibam was proven guilty of violating Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law No. 31 of 1999 on the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law No. 20 of 2001 jo. Article 55 paragraph (1) first of the Criminal Code.
Before imposing the sentence, the Panel of Judges considered several aggravating and mitigating circumstances. The aggravating factor was that Ibam’s actions had caused significant state financial losses for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
Furthermore, Ibam’s actions were deemed not to support the state’s programme for clean and corruption-free governance, free from corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN), and were committed in the education sector during the 2019 pandemic, resulting in double impacts: state financial losses and hindrance to mapping the quality of education for Indonesian children.
Meanwhile, mitigating considerations for the sentence included that Ibam had never been imprisoned before and was in the position of a technology consultant providing technical input and not as the main policy designer in the Chromebook procurement, so the degree of Ibam’s structural role differed from that of public officials who set strategic policies.
“The defendant was also not proven to have received direct fund flows from the Chromebook procurement personally,” added the Presiding Judge.
Ibam’s sentence in the alleged corruption case of the education digitalisation programme involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and CDM within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology from 2019–2022 is much lighter than the prosecutors’ demand.
Previously, Ibam was demanded 15 years’ imprisonment, a fine of Rp1 billion subsidised by 190 days’ imprisonment, and restitution of Rp16.92 billion subsidised by 7 years and 6 months’ imprisonment in the case.
Regarding restitution, the Panel of Judges did not impose such a penalty because Ibam was not proven to have received fund flows from the case.