Nadiem Hospitalised, Corruption Trial over Chromebook Procurement Postponed until 4 May

The panel of judges has decided to postpone the trial in the alleged corruption case involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM), with the defendant being former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Anwar Makarim. The trial was postponed because Nadiem is ill and hospitalised at RS Abdi Waluyo.

Initially, Nadiem’s legal team proposed that the examination of the expert witness to mitigate the case proceed without Nadiem’s presence at today’s hearing. The panel eventually suspended the proceedings to deliberate on the matter.

“After hearing the statements from the advocates and the response from the public prosecutor regarding the presence of the expert and witness proposed by the advocate, the panel of judges has deliberated on this,” said the chief judge Purwanto S Abdullah after the deliberation at the Central Jakarta Corruption Court, Monday (27/4/2026).

The judges decided to postpone the trial. The judges considered Nadiem’s health condition, as he is currently hospitalised at RS Abdi Waluyo, and also to protect Nadiem’s rights as a defendant.

“In essence, after the panel of judges observed the events in the trial and the defendant’s condition, who is currently receiving treatment and hospitalised, the defendant cannot be presented and has a valid reason for his absence,” said the judge.

“Therefore, to also protect the defendant’s rights, even though this may be proposed by the defendant through his advocates, in this case under Article 217, it is the defendant’s right to provide responses or questions to the witnesses or experts presented,” he added.

The judges postponed Nadiem’s trial until Monday (4/5). The judges decided to hold the trial while awaiting Nadiem’s recovery.

“Therefore, the panel of judges decides to postpone this examination, waiting until the defendant is healthy, as also stated in the doctor’s recommendation for rest for nine days from 25 April to 3 May. Thus, it is possible to postpone to 4 May for the examination of the expert or witness to be presented by the advocate,” he said.

In this case, Nadiem is charged with corruption related to the procurement of Chromebook laptops during his tenure as Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. The project is said to have caused state losses of Rp 2.1 trillion.

Prosecutors state that the calculation of state losses of Rp 2.1 trillion comes from the overpricing of Chromebooks amounting to Rp 1,567,888,662,716.74 (1.5 trillion). Then, the procurement of unnecessary and unbeneficial CDM amounting to USD 44,054,426 or equivalent to approximately Rp 621,387,678,730.00 (621 billion).

Besides Nadiem, there are three other defendants in this case. They are Sri Wahyuningsih, former Director of Primary Schools at the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Basic Education, and Secondary Education in 2020-2021; Mulyatsyah, former Director of Junior High Schools at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology in 2020; and Ibrahim Arief (IBAM), a consultant at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology during Nadiem’s era.