Prosecutors: Additional Hajj Quota Arrangement Was 'One Door' Through Fuad Hasan
Public Prosecutor Fahmi Idris from the Corruption Eradication Commission stated that the arrangement for filling the additional hajj quota for 2023-2024 was conducted through a ‘one door’ system via Fuad Hasan Masyhur. Fuad, the President Director of PT Makassar Toraja (Maktour) and a board member of the SATHU forum, began lobbying for Indonesia to obtain an additional 10,000 hajj quotas in 2022. The defendant, Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, did not utilise this quota as the timing was too close to the hajj departure and visa processing period.
The prosecutor revealed that Fuad subsequently noticed the unused quota and held a meeting with the Special Hajj Organisers association. During the meeting, Fuad allegedly proposed that the unused quota be converted into a special hajj quota manageable by SATHU members. Fuad then sent a letter to the Saudi Arabian government on 25 June 2022 requesting the quota be processed into invitation visas, but the effort was not followed up.
In 2023, Fuad lobbied former Director General of Hajj and Umrah at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Hilman Latief, who then approached Yaqut. Fuad again sought to maximise the use of the additional quota, including by writing to Yaqut and Commission VIII of the Indonesian House of Representatives. Hilman accommodated Fuad’s request by instructing technical officials in Jeddah to propose a 92 percent regular and 8 percent special quota scheme. Hilman also proposed to Yaqut via WhatsApp on 18 May 2023 that the 8 percent additional quota be allocated for special hajj, despite a prior agreement with the House that the additional quota would be for regular hajj. Yaqut approved the proposal through Ministerial Decree Number 467 of 2023, setting 7,360 regular and 640 special quotas.
In 2024, Fuad and several SATHU administrators met Yaqut to request that special hajj organisers manage more than 8 percent of the additional quota. Yaqut instructed the forum to communicate intensively with his special staff member, Ishfah Abidal Aziz, regarding the quota management. During meetings, Gus Alex conveyed that Indonesia would receive around 20,000 additional hajj quotas, and Fuad expressed his desire to manage the quota with the technical filling done through him as a ‘one door’ system.
Yaqut is charged with causing state losses of Rp622.09 billion by diverting and arranging the allocation of the 2024 additional special hajj quota by 50 percent without a technical study basis. He is also accused of filling the 2023 and 2024 additional special hajj quotas with pilgrims who did not meet the established mechanisms. The actions were carried out together with his former special staff member, the operational director of Maktour, and the former chairman of the Indonesian Hajj and Umrah Tour Travel Association. Fuad himself has not been named a suspect, although he was previously placed under a travel ban. The state losses arose from discrepancies in revenue and expenditure for pilgrims who were not entitled to depart, as well as from the sale of special hajj officer quotas and acceleration fees.