KPK Reveals Central Role of Former Religious Minister's Special Staff Gus Alex in Hajj Quota Corruption Case
Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has remanded former Special Staff to Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Ishfah Abidal Aziz (IAA), commonly known as Gus Alex, to custody on Tuesday, 17 March 2026, in connection with a hajj quota corruption case at the Religious Affairs Ministry.
The KPK has established that Gus Alex played a crucial role in the hajj quota case. In 2023, Indonesia received an additional 8,000 hajj quotas from Saudi Arabia, which were originally intended to reduce waiting times for regular hajj pilgrims. However, Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut issued a discretionary decision that altered the distribution of the additional quotas to 92 per cent for regular pilgrims and 8 per cent for premium (special) pilgrim routes.
“In this distribution scheme, IAA’s role was quite central, including communicating with various associations and hajj travel agencies (PIHK) to absorb the additional hajj quotas for the premium route, amounting to 8 per cent or approximately 640 quotas,” KPK Spokesperson Budi Prasetyo told journalists on Tuesday, 17 March 2026.
The KPK has uncovered evidence that Gus Alex orchestrated the collection of acceleration fees (T0 or TX) from pilgrims seeking to travel without queuing. For 2023, the alleged acceleration fees were approximately USD 5,000 per pilgrim, or approximately 80 million rupiah, with these fees allegedly flowing to Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut (YCQ), Gus Alex (IAA), and other ministry officials.
“These acceleration fees allegedly flowed to YCQ, IAA, and other parties at the Religious Affairs Ministry,” said Budi.
According to the KPK, Gus Alex’s activities continued into 2024. At that time, IAA was actively managing an additional 20,000 quota allocation. Initially, this allocation was intended entirely for regular hajj pilgrims. However, the scheme was altered to 50 per cent regular and 50 per cent premium through the involvement of Religious Affairs Minister YCQ and IAA.
“YCQ instructed IAA to arrange the scheme whereby the additional hajj quotas would be split 50:50. That is, 10,000 for regular, 10,000 for premium,” said Budi.
“Originally, this allocation was entirely for regular pilgrims, hence intensive communication was conducted in part to conceal the fact that what was being done appeared not to violate legal provisions,” Budi explained.
For 2024, the KPK found that the fees amounted to approximately 40 million rupiah per additional regular hajj quota that was diverted to premium hajj pilgrim routes.
“The fee was approximately USD 2,500 or approximately 40 million rupiah per quota from a total of 10,000 premium quotas,” said Budi.
In this case, the KPK has already determined Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut as a suspect alongside former Special Staff to the Religious Affairs Minister Ishfah Abidal Aziz (IAA), also known as Gus Alex. Yaqut is suspected of violating Article 2, paragraph (1) and/or Article 3 of Law No. 31 of 1999 Jo. Article 18 of Law No. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Offences as amended by Law No. 20 of 2001 Amending Law No. 31 of 1999 concerning the Eradication of Corruption Offences Jo. Article 55, paragraph (1), first clause of the Criminal Code.
The KPK subsequently detained Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut for an initial 20-day period from 12 to 31 March 2026, held at the State Detention Centre (Rutan) Annex of the Red and White Building of the KPK. Gus Alex was detained later by the KPK on 17 March.