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Religious Affairs Ministry official testifying before the Jakarta Corruption Court on Wednesday said that graft suspect and former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali had issued instructions to include dozens of relatives and colleagues in his haj entourage in 2013, a trip that was paid for using money from regular pilgrims.

The witness, Sri Ilham Lubis, who is currently serving as the ministry'€™s director for haj services, said that in order to facilitate the 39 individuals, the former minister had ordered officials to use haj quota places intended for other pilgrims.

In order to hide the identities of the 39 individuals, they were registered as members of the haj committee to avoid complaints from registered pilgrims.

'€œWe had to use quota places not taken up by pilgrims. We included them in the list of haj committee members because they did not pay haj pilgrimage travel fees [BPIH],'€ Ilham said in his testimony.

Ilham said that the places were supposed to be given to pilgrims on the waiting list or at least members of the haj committee selected by the ministry'€™s director general for the haj and umrah (minor haj).

As the ministry'€™s budget could not accommodate any more additional haj committee members, Suryadharma instructed the ministry to use money collected from pilgrims to pay for the trips.

'€œIt was processed after approval from SDA [Suryadharma] was issued. There was a meeting to discuss the issue,'€ Ilham said, adding that the individuals would later join a total of 3,250 haj committee members whose job was to assist around 200,000 pilgrims performing the haj in 2013.

In spite of their status as haj committee members, the 39 individuals were in the Holy Land only to perform the haj rituals and carried out no official duties.

In addition, seven of the individuals received a stipend of Rp 355 million (US$25,868) each, which was taken from the state budget.

Earlier on Friday at the court, another Religious Affairs Ministry official, also gave incriminating testimony against Suryadharma.

The ministry'€™s former director for haj and umrah training, Ahmad Kartono, said that between 2011 and 2013, Suryadharma, who served as minister from 2009 to 2014, also asked him to arrange a trip for a number of House of Representatives Commission VII members, also by falsifying their identities.

The KPK has indicted Suryadharma on corruption charges, accusing him of abusing his authority as Religious Affairs Minister to enrich himself and other individuals by misusing haj pilgrimage funds, which were obtained from the payments of haj pilgrims and from state funds.

Suryadharma is alleged to have misused Rp 27.28 billion from the haj fund and received 17.96 million reals from a Saudi businessman who wanted to win contracts for haj accommodation.

If found guilty Suryadharma could be sentenced to up to 20 years'€™ imprisonment.