Nadiem Confident of Acquittal on Appeal, Cites No State Loss and Judicial Violations

Former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for the 2019-2024 period, Nadiem Makarim, has admitted he is optimistic about being acquitted of the Chromebook case verdict through an appeal hearing. “I am optimistic for several reasons,” said Nadiem when met after the appeal hearing at the DKI Jakarta High Court on Wednesday. The first reason, he said, is that his case very strongly demonstrates the absence of state losses or any element of corruption, which even a layperson could understand. Because there is no state loss or corruption, he believes the panel of judges at the first-level court found it difficult to issue a ruling declaring him guilty. Nadiem stated that this difficulty was evident in the verdict, which declared he abused his authority by granting excessive power to special staff and technology consultants. “Imagine being sentenced to 10 years in prison because I gave too much authority. That is one example of coercion, so our case is very strong,” he said. He continued with the second reason, namely that the Judicial Commission (KY) has already found judicial violations related to his case, after his side reported indications of pressure or intimidation on judges at the district court level. Furthermore, he added, the ongoing internal transformation and reform within the Attorney General’s Office is expected to prevent judges from being pressured again. “So that judges can be independent, only follow the facts of the trial, and follow their conscience,” Nadiem revealed. In the alleged corruption case concerning the education digitalisation programme involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) within the Ministry of Education and Culture from 2019-2022, Nadiem was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of corruption. In addition to the prison sentence, he was also fined Rp1 billion, subsidiary to 190 days imprisonment, and ordered to pay restitution of Rp809.59 billion, subsidiary to 5 years imprisonment. The restitution was imposed on Nadiem after it was proven he received Rp809.59 billion originating from PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (PT AKAB) through PT Gojek Indonesia. The majority of PT AKAB’s funds came from a Google investment worth 786.99 million US dollars. In this case, Nadiem was proven to have abused his authority, causing state losses of Rp1.56 trillion.