Yaqut's Legal Counsel Flags State-Loss Audit as Formally Defective, Issued After Suspect Status Was Declared

JAKARTA — Mellisa Anggraini, the legal counsel for former Minister of Religious Affairs Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, questioned the basis for calculating state losses used by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in naming her client a suspect. In the pretrial hearing, KPK conceded that the results of the state financial loss audit were only obtained from the Supreme Audit Board (BPK) in February 2026, while Yaqut’s status as a suspect had been established since 9 January 2026. ‘That means there were no audit results at the time the suspect was named,’ said Mellisa Anggraini at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday, 4 March 2026. She also pointed to the figure for state losses, which had initially been cited as Rp 1.6 trillion but later narrowed to Rp 622 billion. ‘That means what was counted is the potential loss, not the actual loss as mandated by the Supreme Court ruling,’ she said. Previously, the state losses in the 2023-2024 Special Hajj pilgrimage management stood at Rp 622 billion. Based on that, KPK emphasised that the Hajj quota corruption case falls under a corruption offence that meets the criteria of Article 11(1)(d) of the KPK Law, which requires losses of at least Rp 1 billion. KPK also stated that from the designation of Yaqut as a suspect, two legally admissible pieces of evidence had been established. In its conclusion, the applicant’s designation as a suspect had undergone a series of data gathering, information, testimony, and leads, so that the two legally admissible pieces of evidence required had been fulfilled. And as of this pretrial hearing, the KPK’s investigation remained ongoing.