Indonesia court cuts Gojek founder Nadiem Makarim’s jail term to nine years

[JAKARTA] An Indonesian appeals court has cut former education minister Nadiem Makarim’s prison sentence by a year to nine years in a corruption case involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops for schools.

His lawyers said they will challenge this ruling in the Supreme Court.

The Jakarta High Court on Thursday (Sep 24) upheld the conviction for corruption in the procurement of Chromebooks and the Chrome Device Management platform during his tenure as education minister, but cut both his prison term and the amount he must pay in restitution.

The court dealt him nine years in prison and a fine of 1 billion rupiah (US$60,000), with a subsidiary prison term of 140 days if the fine is not paid.

It also ordered him to pay 548.8 billion rupiah in restitution, down from 809.6 billion rupiah and the 10-year prison term imposed by the Central Jakarta Corruption Court in June.

The High Court said Nadiem remained legally and convincingly proven to have committed corruption together with others. The 42-year-old was found guilty in the case, along with three other defendants who were sentenced to between four and five years in prison.

Judge Catur Iriantoro said in a televised court hearing that the panel rejected Nadiem’s appeal to have all charges dismissed, finding that the lower court’s ruling was consistent with the facts established during the trial, the evidence presented and witness testimony.

The panel also said Nadiem’s actions had benefited Google in the procurement process.

Prosecutors had previously accused him of abusing his authority to procure 1.6 million Chromebooks at inflated prices between 2020 and 2022. The laptops were to have been used to support digital learning during the pandemic.

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Mitigating factors

The judges cited several mitigating factors in reducing the sentence, including Nadiem’s conduct during the trial, his contribution to job creation in the transportation sector, his lack of previous convictions and his family responsibilities.

Nadiem’s lawyer Ari Yusuf Amir said the defence was not satisfied with the ruling and would seek a further review by the Supreme Court. The defence said it plans to register the appeal as soon as Friday (Sep 25).

“We will immediately file an appeal to the Supreme Court. Even one day of imprisonment will not be accepted,” Ari told The Business Times.

The defence maintains that Nadiem committed no corruption and that the procurement process followed the applicable procedures, he said. The lawyers had sought an acquittal rather than a reduction in the sentence.

Under Indonesia’s new Criminal Procedure Code that took effect this year, a defendant or prosecutor can seek an appeal against a High Court ruling.

The Supreme Court generally examines whether the law was correctly applied; it does not conduct another full trial of facts and evidence.

The case stems from the government’s procurement of technology devices under its education digitalisation programme during Nadiem’s tenure as minister from 2019 to 2024.

Prosecutors had alleged that decisions surrounding the procurement caused losses to the state.