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View all search resultsKPK's 'special treatment'
The KPK's holiday move to transfer a high-profile graft suspect to temporary house arrest could set a dangerous precedent for preferential treatment and risk backsliding in the country's fight against graft.
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Graft suspect Yaqut Cholil Qoumas (center), who was religious affairs minister in 2020-2024, is escorted out of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) headquarters in South Jakarta on March 12, 2026, after questioning over his alleged involvement in mismanaging the 2024 haj quota. (Antara/Sulthony Hasanuddin)
T
he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is facing yet another test of integrity after it transferred graft suspect Yaqut Cholil Qoumas from its detention center to temporary house arrest over Idul Fitri, a move that goes against the principle of equality before the law that the agency must uphold consistently.
Ironically, the seeming breach of the judicial protocol came after the KPK showed its teeth through a series of raids over the last few months to uncover corrupt acts implicating regional leaders. During Ramadan alone, KPK investigators caught three regents in Central Java and Banten red-handed.
None of those regents received the preferential treatment Yaqut was given, although KPK spokesman Budi Prasetyo said any detainee could request house arrest, just like Yaqut’s family did on March 17.
Budi maintains that granting the facility depends on each case, but the optics suggest a bad precedent in the country’s fight against entrenched corruption. Yaqut was at the KPK detention facility a mere seven days after the South Jakarta District Court rejected of his pretrial motion, a phase when the prosecution’s standing was theoretically at its peak.
The scandal embroiling the former religious affairs minister centers on Rp 622 billion (US$37 million) in state losses that resulted from alleged mismanagement of Indonesia’s haj quota in 2023 and 2024. Yaqut and certain subordinates at the Religious Affairs Ministry are accused of arranging a "fast-track fee" that extorted up to Rp 84.4 million per potential pilgrim.
The change in Yaqut’s form of detention was notably absent from official KPK communication, and it came to light only through third-party observation during Idul Fitri. This lack of transparency invites scrutiny of potential "special treatment" given to high-profile figures like Yaqut.
In the legal framework regulated by the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP), such privileges are rarely granted. The temporary transfer to house arrest arguably heightens the risk of intervention from external actors, if not an attempt to destroy evidence.
