Tomorrow, Nadiem Makarim to Testify as Crown Witness in Chromebook Corruption Case Involving Ibrahim Arief and Others
Jakarta — Former Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Nadiem Makarim will be examined as a crown witness in an alleged corruption case involving the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops with defendant and former Technology Consultant Ibrahim Arief on Tuesday, 10 March 2026.
“Nadiem will serve as a crown witness for Ibrahim. We shall see tomorrow what statements will be questioned of Nadiem,” said Nadiem’s lawyer, Dodi Abdulkadir, when met at Jakarta’s Anti-Corruption Court on Monday, 9 March 2026.
In addition to Ibrahim’s trial, there will also be hearings tomorrow for two other defendants: the Director of Middle School Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology for 2020–2021 and Budget User Authority (KPA) Mulyatsyah; and the Director of Primary School Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology for 2020–2021 and KPA, Sri Wahyuningsih.
Dodi is confident that Nadiem’s testimony will reveal facts that have been concealed thus far.
“Like earlier, there was a statement from a witness that the Chromebook procurement was peculiar because there were notes that Chrome could not be used or Chrome could only function optimally if used in places with internet,” said Dodi.
However, according to the technical guidelines for procurement, schools eligible to receive Chromebooks were those that had fewer than 15 computers. Additionally, schools receiving Chromebooks were required to have electrical and internet infrastructure.
In this case, former Minister Nadiem Makarim, together with three other defendants, is alleged to have caused state financial losses totalling Rp 2.1 trillion. Nadiem is charged with self-enrichment valued at Rp 809 billion.
Nadiem is alleged to have abused his authority in a manner that made Google the sole authority over information technology procurement, including laptops, in Indonesia’s technology ecosystem. This was accomplished by directing procurement assessments toward a single product category—Chrome-based devices, which are Google products.
Nadiem carried out these actions together with three other defendants: former Technology Consultant at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Ibrahim Arief; Director of Middle School Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology for 2020–2021 and Budget User Authority, Mulyatsyah; and Director of Primary School Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology for 2020–2021 and Budget User Authority, Sri Wahyuningsih.
For these actions, Nadiem and the other defendants face charges under Articles 2(1) and 3 together with Article 18 of Law Number 31 of 1999 as amended and supplemented by Law Number 20 of 2001 concerning Amendments to Law Number 31 of 1999 on the Eradication of Corruption Offences, together with Article 55(1) clause 1 of the Indonesian Criminal Code.