Nadiem Responds to Ibrahim Arief's 15-Year Prison Demand: Confusing
Former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Makarim has expressed his confusion regarding the 15-year prison demand against the defendant in the alleged corruption case concerning the procurement of Chromebooks and CDM, Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam. Nadiem was deeply saddened to hear the demand.
“Today, I also want to mention something that has made me very sad and confused. This is regarding Ibrahim Arief or Ibam, who was demanded 15 years yesterday, even UP (replacement money) of Rp16 billion, and if not paid, it becomes 22 years,” said Nadiem Anwar Makarim at the Central Jakarta Corruption Court, Monday (20/4), quoted from detik.com.
Nadiem stated that Ibam is known as one of the best engineers in Indonesia. He said Ibam has an extraordinary reputation, reliability, competence, and idealism.
“That a person like that receives such a high punishment or demand, it is very confusing to me,” he said.
Nadiem explained that Ibam, as a consultant, had no authority to make any decisions. He mentioned that Ibam also did not receive any fund flows related to this case.
“And thirdly, from the evidence of WA chats and meeting minutes presented in court, which I saw, all the evidence pointing to Ibam actually shows him being very critical towards various discussions on Chromebooks and always challenging,” said Nadiem.
“Even from witnesses from Google’s executives who were present in the ministry in 2020, they stated that our team, including Ibam, always challenged, and Google was pessimistic that Chrome OS would be selected,” he added.
Nadiem said Ibam sacrificed double his salary to serve the nation. He expressed confusion over the potential near-maximum punishment demanded against Ibam.
“So I am very confused how someone who sacrificed two, three times more salary, rejected a job at Facebook in the UK, sacrificed himself to serve the country, could face such a demand and potential near-maximum punishment,” he said.
Furthermore, Nadiem urged Indonesian youth to reflect on and examine this case. He invited all young people to think about the current legal processes.
“So please, this makes me feel that young professionals must realise that perhaps not everything is going well with the legal processes in our country at the moment,” said Nadiem.
“And please remember, Ibam is one of us, he is a young professional. And don’t forget, Ibam is an engineer, Ibam is a father, Ibam is a husband. Please pray for Ibam,” he added.
In this case, Ibam is demanded 15 years in prison, a fine of Rp1 billion subsidiary 190 days imprisonment. The prosecutors also demand Ibam pay replacement money of Rp16.92 billion subsidiary 7 years and 6 months imprisonment.
The prosecutors believe Ibam is guilty of violating Article 603 jo. Article 20 of the Criminal Code jo. Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 on the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001.