Sleman Court Nullifies Suspect Status of Council Member Raudi Akmal in Tourism Grant Case
The judge has struck down the corruption suspect status of Raudi Akmal, who was implicated in the misuse of Sleman Regency’s 2020 tourism grant funds, in a pre-trial ruling delivered at the Sleman District Court today. The following are the judge’s considerations.
In his considerations, sole judge Ari Prabawa focused on the arrest. The judge assessed that the arrest and suspect designation of Raudi were not legally valid.
“Considering that the pre-trial judge is of the opinion that the arrest of the suspect, namely the pre-trial applicant, carried out by the respondent was not lawful according to law,” said the sole judge, Ari Prabawa, when reading out the ruling at the Sleman District Court on Tuesday (28/7/2026).
The judge further ordered that Raudi Akmal be released from detention. This was a consequence of the suspect status being struck down on the basis of Article 163 paragraph (3) letter a of Law No. 20 of 2025 on the Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP).
“Given the ruling that the suspect designation is not valid, the investigators must release the suspect,” he said.
According to the judge, it was not the prosecutors’ detention that rendered Raudi Akmal’s suspect designation invalid. The pre-trial judge found that the detention carried out by investigators at the Sleman District Prosecutor’s Office complied with Article 100 of Law No. 20 of 2025 on the Criminal Procedure Code, and that there was no proven legal irregularity in the detention process carried out by investigators.
“Considering that the release of the suspect is not based on the validity or otherwise of the detention carried out by the pre-trial respondent, but rather because it is a mandate of the law, since the suspect designation has been declared legally invalid,” he said.
Furthermore, after examining the detention documents submitted by the pre-trial applicant — namely Form T18 (Detention Order) and Form T2 (Official Report on the Execution of the Detention Order) — in conjunction with the investigators’ testimony in court, the judge declared that the detention already served by the suspect remained valid but was deemed unlawful as a matter of law.
“Thus, the detention already served by the suspect remains valid. Nevertheless, because the suspect designation has been declared legally invalid, the suspect or the pre-trial applicant must still be released from detention,” he said.
According to Ari, the same logic applies to acquittal rulings for a defendant, whereby a defendant who is acquitted must be immediately released from detention. This does not mean, however, that the detentions already served were invalid.
“Accordingly, with respect to petitum number 5 regarding the invalidity of the Detention Order, it must be declared rejected,” he said.
Previously, the Sleman District Prosecutor’s Office named Raudi Akmal, a member of the Sleman Regency Regional Representative Council (DPRD), as a suspect in an alleged corruption case involving tourism grant funds in Sleman Regency for 2020. Raudi was immediately detained and taken to the Class II A Detention Centre in Yogyakarta, also known as Wirogunan Prison.
Raudi, the son of former Sleman Regent Sri Purnomo, was named a suspect after failing to appear for questioning by investigators on two occasions. Only on the third summons did Raudi appear, at which point investigators immediately designated him as a suspect.
“Today, Monday 22 June 2026, investigators from the Sleman District Prosecutor’s Office upgraded the status of a witness and designated him as a suspect in the development of an alleged corruption case involving irregularities in the management of tourism grant funds in Sleman Regency in 2020,” said Sleman Chief Prosecutor Bambang Yunianto when giving a statement to journalists at the Sleman District Prosecutor’s Office on Monday evening (22/6).