Indonesia prosecutors have sought an 18-year prison sentence for Gojek co-founder and former education minister Nadiem Anwar Makarim over the high-profile corruption case tied to the procurement of Chromebook laptops for schools, accusing him of causing massive state losses and prioritising personal gain over the country’s education system.
Reading out the 1,597-page indictment at the Central Jakarta District Court on Wednesday, prosecutors said Nadiem had been “legally and convincingly proven guilty” of corruption related to the procurement programme carried out between 2020 and 2022.
Prosecutors argued that the former minister’s actions “did not support the government’s programme to create a clean state administration free from corruption, collusion, and nepotism.”
They also said the alleged corruption in the education sector—described as a strategic pillar of national development—had undermined efforts to improve equal access to quality education for Indonesian children.
“The defendant, together with Ibrahim Arief, Sri Wahyuningsih, Mulyatsyah, and fugitive Jurist Tan, caused state financial losses amounting to 1.56 trillion rupiah,” prosecutors told the court.
They further alleged that Nadiem had sought to benefit from the procurement project while disregarding the quality of early childhood, primary, and secondary education in Indonesia.
“[The defendant acted] with the aim of obtaining personal gain by ignoring the quality of education,” prosecutors said, adding that his assets had increased disproportionately compared with his lawful income. Prosecutors estimated the allegedly unexplained wealth linked to the case at around 4.87 trillion rupiah.
In addition to the prison term, prosecutors demanded that Nadiem pay a fine of 1 billion rupiah ($57,196), subsidiary to 190 days’ imprisonment. They also sought replacement payments amounting to 809 billion rupiah and an additional 4.8 trillion rupiah, bringing the total financial claim against Nadiem to around 5.6 trillion rupiah.
They told the court that Nadiem’s assets could be seized and auctioned to cover the replacement payments. If the confiscated assets are insufficient to meet the amount demanded, prosecutors requested that the unpaid balance be substituted with an additional nine-year prison term.
Nadiem is scheduled to deliver his defence plea on June 2 after the court granted a postponement due to a medical procedure he is set to undergo on Wednesday evening, with additional time needed for recovery.
The case centres on the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops under the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry’s digitalisation programme between 2019 and 2023. Authorities have alleged that officials and involved parties steered the procurement towards Chromebook devices despite concerns that the laptops were unsuitable for schools in areas with weak internet connectivity.
The Attorney General’s Office has also named several other suspects in the case, including technology consultant Ibrahim Arief, former elementary school director Sri Wahyuningsih, and former junior secondary school director Mulyatsyah.
Arief was previously involved in the ministry’s digital education initiatives and had held roles in Indonesia’s technology sector, including at Bukalapak and government-backed education technology programme GovTech Edu.
Separately, on Tuesday, an Indonesian court sentenced Arief to four years in prison and also fined him 500 million rupiah. The sentence was lower than prosecutors’ earlier demand of 15 years in prison and a 1-billion-rupiah fine, with a subsidiary sentence of 190 days’ imprisonment.
The panel of judges found Arief guilty of participating in the procurement scheme tied to the nearly 9.9-trillion-rupiah project. Prosecutors had accused him of influencing technical recommendations and procurement specifications in favour of Chromebook devices despite internal assessments questioning their effectiveness in remote regions.
In separate rulings, Sri Wahyuningsih was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 500 million rupiah, subsidiary to 120 days’ imprisonment. Meanwhile, Mulyatsyah was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison and fined 500 million rupiah, subsidiary to 120 days’ imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay 2.28 billion rupiah in restitution.
