Judge Rejects Pretrial Motion of Former Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas
A single judge at Jakarta South District Court, Sulistyo Muhammad Dwi Putro, has rejected a pretrial motion (case number 19/Pid.Pra/2026) filed by former Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas on Wednesday, 11 March.
“In the principal case: I reject the Petitioner’s pretrial motion in its entirety,” the judge stated in the courtroom of Oemar Seno Adji at Jakarta South District Court on Wednesday, 11 March.
The judge determined that the suspect designation imposed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Yaqut was consistent with a Constitutional Court ruling and Supreme Court Regulation (Perma) Number 4 of 2016.
Accordingly, the judge rejected all reliefs sought by Yaqut.
Previously, one of Yaqut’s reasons for filing the pretrial motion was his view that the KPK had not satisfied the requirement of possessing two valid pieces of evidence when designating him as a suspect.
This was because the evidence used by the KPK was deemed to lack relevance to the principal elements of the offence concerning “harming state finances or state economy”.
Yaqut’s legal counsel considered this to be fundamentally significant because following the Constitutional Court’s Decision Number 25/PUU-XIV/2016, the provisions of Article 2 paragraph (1) and Article 3 of the Anti-Corruption Law (and correspondingly their equivalents in Articles 603 and 604 of the new Criminal Code) must be understood as material offences—offences that first require a real and certain consequence in the form of state or economic financial loss before a person can lawfully be designated as a suspect.
Yaqut and his special staff member named Ishfah Abidal Aziz, also known as Gus Alex, were designated by the KPK as suspects in an alleged corruption case involving an additional hajj quota. However, neither has been detained.
Nevertheless, the KPK has requested the Directorate General of Immigration to prevent Yaqut and Ishfah from leaving the country for six months until 12 August 2026.
During the ongoing investigation, the KPK has searched numerous locations including Yaqut’s residence in Condet, East Jakarta, a hajj and umrah travel agency office in Jakarta, the residence of a Ministry of Religious Affairs civil servant in Depok, and the office of the Directorate General of Hajj and Umrah (PHU) of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Numerous items of evidence allegedly related to the case have been seized, including documents, electronic evidence, four-wheeled vehicles, and property.
Based on calculations by the State Financial Audit Board (BPK), the state allegedly suffered losses totalling Rp622,090,207,166.41 (Rp622 billion) from the alleged corruption case involving an additional hajj quota for the organisation of the 2023 and 2024 pilgrimage seasons.
This figure emerged some time ago, well after Yaqut and Ishfah were designated and publicly announced by the KPK as suspects.