Judge Rejects Nadiem Makarim's Pretrial Petition in Chromebook Case

9 hours ago 5

October 13, 2025 | 04:59 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Judge of the South Jakarta District Court, I Ketut Darpawan, has rejected the pretrial petition filed by Nadiem Makarim challenging his suspect status in the Ministry of Education's Chromebook corruption case spanning 2019-2022.

"Reject the petitioner's pretrial petition," stated I Ketut Darpawan while reading the decision in the main courtroom of the South Jakarta District Court on Monday, October 13, 2025.

Ketut explained that the basis for rejecting the petition was that the suspect designation was carried out in accordance with prevailing legal procedures.

The judge dismissed Nadiem's claim that his detention was invalid, noting that the prosecution had gathered at least two pieces of evidence in the case. During the investigation process, evidence was collected, including statements from 18 witnesses, expert testimonies, various documents, and electronic evidence.

However, Ketut clarified that the pretrial mechanism is not authorized to interpret the material truth of the evidence.

"Considering that with all the above considerations, the judge is of the opinion that the investigation carried out by the respondent (the Attorney General's Office) to gather evidence to clarify the criminal acts and obtain evidence to find the suspect has been carried out in accordance with the legal procedures of criminal procedure and therefore is legal in accordance with the law," Ketut concluded.

Nadiem Makarim, the former Minister of Education, filed the pretrial petition against his designation as a suspect in the Chromebook corruption case on September 23, 2025.

His legal team argued that the designation was formally flawed. They questioned why Nadiem was never questioned as a suspect and claimed he did not receive a Letter of Notice of the Commencement of the Investigation (SPDP).

Furthermore, the defense highlighted that the Letter of Investigation Order (Sprindik) and the Letter of Designation of Suspect were allegedly issued on the same day, September 4, 2025, coinciding with the implementation of the detention.

Additionally, there is an inconsistency in the mention of his job description on the suspect designation letter compared to his identity card (KTP) and the lack of a state financial loss audit from the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP).

Nadiem's legal team member, Dodi S. Abdulkadir, stated: "The investigative audit did not proceed because the general audit did not find any state financial losses."

The legal team also affirmed that Nadiem did not gain personal benefit from the education digitalization project. "His actions are not concrete because the digitalization program mentioned in the allegations did not even exist during the pandemic," Dodi asserted.

Nadiem was designated as a suspect in the Chromebook procurement corruption case at the Ministry of Education. In addition to Nadiem, the Attorney General's Office also named four other suspects: Jurist Tan, Nadiem's former Special Staff; Ibrahim Arief, former consultant of the Ministry of Education and Culture; Sri Wahyuningsih, Director of Elementary Schools at the Ministry of Education and Culture for the 2020-2021 period; and Mulyatsyah, Director of Junior High Schools at the Ministry of Education and Culture for the 2020-2021 period.

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