Judge's Dissenting Opinion in Nadiem Chromebook Corruption Case

Judge Andi Saputra delivered a dissenting opinion in the verdict for the alleged corruption case involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) for the 2020-2022 fiscal year, which implicated former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Makarim. Andi argued that Nadiem should be acquitted of all charges because the criminal elements were not legally and convincingly proven. He stated that the evidence presented in court was insufficient to demonstrate the existence of mens rea, or criminal intent, on the part of Nadiem as minister. ‘Considering that the puzzle of facts assembled from the concordance of evidence in the trial has shown that a perfect causal conclusion cannot be drawn that there was criminal intent on the part of the defendant as minister to commit an unlawful act,’ Andi said while reading his dissenting opinion at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday (30/6). He also assessed that Nadiem’s act of signing the Minister of Education and Culture Regulation Number 5 of 2021 could not be qualified as a criminal act. According to him, the ministerial regulation did not lock in a specific brand but only specified the operating system. Furthermore, Andi said the trial found no concordance of evidence indicating a criminal conspiracy between Nadiem and other defendants in the case. ‘Defendant Nadiem never explicitly or implicitly ordered Ibrahim, Mulyatsah, or Sri to commit corruption. Conversely, Ibrahim, Mulyatsah, and Sri never provided any unlawful gratuity to the defendant,’ Andi stated. Andi also addressed the alleged connection between the laptop procurement policy, state losses, and Google’s additional investment in PT GoTo. He assessed that these three events lacked a strong causal relationship. ‘The three events—the laptop procurement policy, the state losses, and Google’s additional capital injection into PT GoTo—are three events that do not have a strong causal link, at least not due to any criminal act, conflict of interest, or influence peddling by the defendant,’ he said. Based on all these considerations, Andi concluded that the evidence presented by the prosecutors was insufficient to prove any criminal intent or act by Nadiem. ‘Considering that the defendant has not been legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing the criminal acts as charged in the primary and subsidiary indictments, the defendant Nadiem Anwar Makarim must be acquitted of all charges,’ Andi stated. Nadiem was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine of Rp1 billion in the corruption case concerning the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) for the 2020-2022 fiscal year. The judges declared Nadiem legally and convincingly guilty of committing corruption as per the subsidiary charge. Nadiem was also given an additional penalty of paying restitution amounting to Rp809.5 billion. If the restitution is not paid, it will be replaced with 5 years of imprisonment.