Prosecutors Maintain 18-Year Prison Demand for Nadiem Makarim in Chromebook Corruption Case

Jakarta - Public Prosecutor Roy Riady of the Attorney General’s Office has maintained the demand for an 18-year prison sentence for Nadiem Anwar Makarim, the Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology for the 2019–2024 period, in connection with the Chromebook corruption case. He concluded that the defence plea, submitted both by the advocate team and by Nadiem himself against the charges, was unable to demolish the indictment or disable any of the legal facts that had been legitimately and convincingly proven in court. ‘Declaring that the public prosecutor upholds the entire sentencing demand read out at the hearing on 13 May 2026 in the a quo case,’ stated the prosecutor at the replication hearing at the Corruption Court at the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday. Besides the 18-year prison demand, the prosecutors also upheld the demand for a Rp1 billion fine, subsidiary to 190 days’ imprisonment, and restitution of Rp5.67 trillion, subsidiary to 9 years’ imprisonment, against Nadiem. The prosecution therefore requested the panel of judges to reject Nadiem’s defence plea in its entirety. After reading and scrutinising the entire plea, the prosecutors stated that the material of the defence, though composed with captivating rhetoric, stirring quotes from philosophers, and poetic language, essentially did not touch the core of the case’s proof. Furthermore, the prosecutors argued the plea failed to shake the various legal facts that had been revealed clearly in court. ‘On the contrary, the defence plea distorts facts through a reinterpretation of clear facts to make it seem as though the defendant is innocent, by atomising each of the defendant’s actions and then assessing them separately from the complete sequence of events,’ the prosecutor stated. In this case, Nadiem is charged with corruption causing state financial losses of Rp2.18 trillion. The corruption was allegedly carried out, among other methods, by implementing the procurement of information and communication technology-based learning tools in the form of Chromebook laptops and CDM for the 2020, 2021, and 2022 fiscal years, which was not in accordance with procurement planning and principles. The actions of the founder of a technology company were allegedly carried out jointly with three other defendants in separate trials, namely Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam, Mulyatsyah, and Sri Wahyuningsih, as well as Jurist Tan, who remains a fugitive. Through these actions, Nadiem allegedly received money amounting to Rp809.59 billion originating from PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa via PT Gojek Indonesia. It was noted that the majority of PT AKAB’s funding came from a Google investment worth USD 786.99 million. This can be seen from Nadiem’s wealth recorded in the State Officials’ Wealth Report in 2022, which shows the acquisition of securities assets worth Rp5.59 trillion. For his actions, the former minister is threatened with penalties stipulated in Article 2 paragraph (1) or Article 3 in conjunction with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 on the Eradication of Corruption, as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001, in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) 1st of the Criminal Code.