Yaqut Placed Under House Arrest, ICW Urges Supervisory Board to Examine KPK Leadership
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has urged the Supervisory Board (Dewas) of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to examine the leadership of the anti-corruption agency for shifting the status of former Minister of Religious Affairs (Menag) Yaqut Cholil Qoumas to house arrest in the alleged corruption case concerning the 2023-2024 Hajj quota.
“The KPK Supervisory Board must conduct an examination of the KPK leadership regarding this case. This is because it is reasonable to suspect that the KPK leadership knew about and approved the transfer of YCQ from the detention centre to house arrest,” said the Head of the Legal and Investigation Division of ICW, Wana Alamsyah, when contacted by Kompas.com on Monday (23/3/2026).
Wana urged the KPK to explain the reasons for transferring Yaqut to house arrest. He considered this action as special treatment from the KPK towards Yaqut.
“This is because, based on ICW’s records, the transfers of detention carried out by the KPK are quite strict, one of which is due to health reasons,” Wana explained.
He emphasised that this detention transfer could become a bad precedent for case handling and even efforts to eradicate corruption in Indonesia.
Moreover, there is the potential for evidence destruction or witness conditioning that could be carried out outside the detention centre.
“This is because the suspect has the potential to damage and eliminate evidence, or influence witnesses when under house arrest,” Wana added.
“The investigators have changed the type of detention for the suspect Mr. YCQ, from detention at the KPK Detention Centre to house arrest, since Thursday night (19/3/2026),” said KPK Spokesperson Budi Prasetyo in his statement on Saturday (21/3/2026).
Budi said that this detention transfer was carried out upon a request from the family submitted on Tuesday (17/3/2026).
“Following that request, it was then reviewed and approved with considerations in accordance with Article 108 paragraphs (1) and (11) of Law Number 20 of 2025 on the Criminal Procedure Code,” Budi continued.
Budi stated that this detention transfer is only temporary. Yaqut has only been in prison for approximately 7 days, or one week.
Yaqut was officially detained by the KPK since Thursday night (12/3/2026). At that time, Yaqut had just completed further examination as a suspect after his pre-trial was rejected by a single judge at the South Jakarta District Court.
In this case, Yaqut is alleged to have carried out several conditionings to regulate the 2023-2024 Hajj quota. Starting from changing regulations to technical implementation.
Yaqut first loosened the special Hajj quota regulations by ordering the Director General of Hajj and Umrah Organisers (PHU), Hilman Latief.