Yaqut's Legal Team Denies Any Receipt or Payment of Money
The legal team of former Minister of Religious Affairs Yaqut Cholil Qoumas has denied any receipt of money by their client or any payment from their client in the Corruption Eradication Commission’s investigation into the Hajj quota case.
“We emphasise that there has never been any receipt of money by our client and no payment of money by our client, either directly or indirectly,” stated Yaqut’s legal representative in a written statement on Tuesday (28/4).
If any party claims to have received or carried out orders from Yaqut regarding the matter, the legal team states that it is untrue and must be proven legally. “It should not be disseminated as a final and proven truth,” the legal representative continued.
Yaqut is also said to have never been fairly confirmed regarding the existence of the US$1 million in question. Yaqut has never been shown the flow of the money in question, never asked to provide an explanation or confrontation, or questioned whether he ever received such money.
“He was never asked whether he ever gave that amount of money, either personally or through other parties,” said the legal representative.
The legal team continued that Yaqut has attempted to seek clarification, but the relevant parties have never been brought forward for confrontation.
“Our client has met with the Financial Audit Agency (BPK) to express readiness for confrontation and to request clarification from parties claiming the existence of fund flows and/or payments, but those parties have never been presented for open and objective clarification or confrontation,” said the legal representative.
This, according to the legal team, shows that Yaqut has never avoided revealing the material truth. “On the contrary, our client has actively requested that the facts be tested fairly,” they said.
The legal team suspects there may be an issue deflection from the actual operational problems towards the criminalisation of policies.
Furthermore, if the flow of money is to be traced, the legal team says that those who truly know, collect, control, and use the money must be exposed.
The legal representative continued that if it is true that parties have only recently surrendered or returned the money after a long time and after the Hajj quota case was raised, this actually demands a total exposure of who is really behind the money.
“It should be understood that the organisation of the 1445H/2025M Hajj pilgrimage has been audited by the BPK, and in the audit results, the BPK stated there was efficiency of approximately Rp600 billion,” said the legal representative.