Nadiem Makarim Hopes for Full Acquittal

The Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for the 2019-2024 period, Nadiem Anwar Makarim, hopes that the panel of judges will deliver a verdict of full acquittal regarding the alleged Chromebook corruption case. He expressed this hope on the sidelines of the court session for the reading of the defence statement, or plea.

“I have only one hope from the panel’s decision, which is a full acquittal. There is no other option,” Nadiem stated when providing a statement to the media at the Corruption Court of the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday (2/6/2026).

Nadiem believes that various facts presented during the trial have simultaneously proven his innocence, making him legally entitled to be acquitted. He called for honesty and conscience from the judges to decide based on the facts presented in court.

Legally, he argues that all elements of the indictment have been refuted. He noted that under corruption law, if even one of the four elements of corruption is not met, the defendant must be fully acquitted.

Nadiem identified the four elements in question as: the element of state loss; the element of legal violation; the element of enriching oneself, another person, or a corporation; and the element of mens rea, or criminal intent.

“All four elements of corruption have been broken; they are unproven,” he said. Nadiem was implicated as one of the defendants in the alleged corruption case involving the education digitalisation programme, specifically the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology between 2019 and 2022.