JAKARTA, May 13 (Reuters) - Indonesian prosecutors said on Wednesday that they were seeking an 18-year prison sentence for Nadiem Makarim, a former Indonesian education minister and co-founder of ride-hailing firm Gojek, over his involvement in a corruption case.
He is alleged to have been involved in improper laptop procurement during the pandemic, which led to $125.64 million in state losses.
If granted, the 18-year prison sentence would be one of the toughest punishments imposed on a former minister in recent years.
Makarim, who resigned as chief executive of ride-hailing company Gojek in 2019 to serve as education minister until 2024, has been accused of enriching himself by around 809 billion rupiah ($46.33 million) through the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome OS for schools between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors have said.
Makarim created tender specifications that only fit the Chrome system to “make Google the sole controller of education ecosystem in Indonesia”, prosecutors alleged.
In a hearing on Wednesday in a Central Jakarta corruption court, prosecutors said Nadiem’s role in the case while serving as a minister violated the government’s anti-corruption pledges and harmed the education system.
The Chromebook laptops were purchased even though the ministry had determined in 2018 that their use for learning would require an internet connection, making them unsuitable for Indonesia, where internet availability is a major issue in remote areas, prosecutors told the court.
The ministry still went ahead with the purchase of the Chromebooks after Makarim met with representatives of Google Asia Pacific and Google Indonesia several times in 2020, prosecutors said.
Makarim was detained in September along with several top officials from his ministry. He had denied wrongdoing, his lawyer Ari Yusuf Amir has said.
Nadiem’s counsel was disappointed with the demands as prosecutors ignored new evidence presented in court, Amir told Reuters on Wednesday.
He said he was expecting a verdict to be reached in June.
Nadiem told news outlet Tech in Asia last month that his case could spook foreign investors in Indonesia.
“I think it could be quite devastating,” he said.
The court has so far imposed jail sentences of up to four and a half years on three officials linked to the ministry for their involvement in the case, including a technology consultant sentenced late on Tuesday.
($1 = 17,460 rupiah)
(Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by David Stanway)
