TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
KPK rules Kaesang’s jet trip 'not illegal', prompts backlash
Anticorruption activists and law experts have hit back at the KPK's decision that Kaesang's private jet travel in August did not constitute an illegal gratuity, calling the anigraft body's arguments weak and shallow.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A cleaner sweeps the entry promenade to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta on Oct. 21, 2024. Newly inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto has vowed to fight corruption through a systemic overhaul, digitalization and assertive law enforcement. (Antara/Aprillio Akbar)
T
he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has concluded that the overseas trip by private jet taken by Kaesang Pangarep, chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), was not an illegal gratuity, prompting criticisms from anticorruption watchdogs.
KPK deputy chair Nurul Ghufron told reporters on Friday that the personal trip to the United States that Kaesang and his wife Erina Gudono took by private jet in August did not violate any laws, nor did it constitute an illegal gratuity because the youngest son of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was not a state official.
Citing the findings of an investigation conducted by the KPK’s corruption prevention unit, Nurul added that Kaesang was no longer a dependent in the Jokowi family, as he was not registered on the former president’s family card (KK).
“The KPK’s graft prevention deputy told me this case [did not involve] an illegal gratuity,” he said, as quoted by Antara.
Lavish behavior
Kaesang and his wife have been under public scrutiny since August, when Erina uploaded to her Instagram account a photograph taken from inside an aircraft that a user later identified as a private jet. The couple was traveling to the US at the time, reportedly to prepare for Erina’s graduate course at the University of Pennsylvania on a partial scholarship.
She also posted several other photos from the trip that suggested the couple’s lavish spending habits, and netizens were quick to allege that the private jet was an unlawful gift provided to the couple because of their familial ties to Jokowi, who was still president at that time.
