KPK Reveals Alleged Extortion Scheme for Unsoed Admission, Demanding Rp650 Million

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) suspects extortion related to new student admissions involving the Rector of Jenderal Soedirman University (Unsoed), Akhmad Sodiq. The KPK will continue to investigate and deepen this allegation. Akhmad Sodiq has currently been detained by the KPK.

Acting Director of Investigations at the KPK, Achmad Taufik Husein, said the extortion cluster in this case resembles a bribery incident. However, he noted that the agency sees a power-authority relationship in the admission of prospective new students.

“The element of extortion is indeed somewhat ambiguous compared to a bribery incident. But because there is a power and authority relationship, the focal point is that this admissions system has those with authority, those who authorise,” Taufik said at a press conference at the KPK building in South Jakarta, quoted on Sunday (23/8/2026).

According to Taufik, if an authorisation is held by a single authority, there is a risk of abuse of power emerging.

Taufik also stated that in the first cluster of this case, a demand for Rp650 million was found to have been made to the parents of a prospective new student of the 2026 Faculty of Medicine.

The parents then tried their utmost by providing money with the intention of getting their child into the faculty.

“This abuse of power is then interpreted downwards, to the staff, requested from the parents, so that parents who have the intention of getting their child into Unsoed will try their utmost,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the parents were deemed not to have a strong position to be on a level with the rector, who holds authority over the new student admissions system. Thus, the KPK views this situation as extortion.

“It is extortion because there is no effort that could be balanced to counter or act as a counterweight to the new student admissions system, whose authority is solely held by the Rector at that university,” he said.

In the second cluster, Taufik continued, the KPK found gratuities related to new student selection amounting to Rp680 million. The KPK applied the gratuity article because it did not find any criminal conspiracy by parents to get their child into Unsoed.

“In the second cluster, we constructed the article as a gratuity article, because if there is only a state official carrying out their normal state duties, and then because of an achievement perceived by the client, or in this case the new student or parents feel their child has passed, they express gratitude,” he said.

Then, in the third cluster, the KPK found negotiations over a dowry of Rp1.12 billion. The KPK also classified this condition as a gratuity because there was indeed no element of criminal conspiracy.

So far, the KPK has detained six suspects caught in the act during the new student admission process at Jenderal Soedirman University (Unsoed) Purwokerto, Central Java.

The suspects are ASO as Rector of Unsoed; NAP as Vice Rector III of Unsoed; ES as Head of Academic Affairs at Unsoed; and DMW, AW, and MYN as private parties. The suspects are detained for the first 20 days from 21 August to 9 September 2026 at the KPK’s Merah Putih Building branch detention centre.