Behind Nadiem Makarim's Defense Plea

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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Former Indonesian Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Nadiem Makarim, will deliver a defense plea in the Chromebook case trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.

Nadiem's attorney, Ari Yusuf Amir, stated that his client will deliver a personal defense plea first. The defense plea from the legal advisory team will follow afterward.

"Yesterday, Mr. Nadiem simulated the delivery of the defense plea," said Ari over the phone on Monday, June 1, 2026. His personal defense plea consists of approximately 30-40 pages. According to him, Nadiem will need around an hour to deliver the plea.

Ari mentioned that the legal advisory team will not deliver the defense plea but will present it. They are also preparing slides to present the defense note.

"We have submitted the written defense plea to the panel of judges in a single folder. However, for the summary, regarding the trial facts and analysis, we will present them in slides to facilitate better understanding," he said. He hopes that the panel of judges and trial spectators will understand Nadiem Makarim's trial facts analysis.

To save time, the legal advisory team will not present the entire defense plea; only a brief introduction and conclusion will be read.

"The legal advisory team's plea is almost 1,000 pages," said Ari. "If we present the entire plea, it would be very thick. So, we will only present the summary, and even that, we will present in slides, not read it aloud."

Furthermore, the legal advisory team will also present trial facts in the form of a video. This step differs from a typical defense plea trial, where the defendant and their lawyer only read the defense note in writing.

"There is a video that serves as an example that in the trial, there is testimony like this," said Ari. However, not all testimonies will be shown in the video. He mentioned that only a few will be used as examples.

Prosecutors' Demands Against Nadiem Makarim

On Wednesday, May 23, 2026, the public prosecutor read the indictment letter against Nadiem Makarim. The prosecutor accused Nadiem of committing corruption crimes together with other defendants, namely Ibrahim Arief alias Ibam, Mulyatsyah, Sri Wahyuningsih, and Jurist Tan.

"Requesting the panel of judges to declare the defendant Nadiem Anwar Makarim proven guilty of committing corruption crimes jointly," said prosecutor Roy Riady at the Corruption Court in Central Jakarta District Court.

The prosecutor asked the panel of judges to sentence Nadiem to 18 years in prison. He was also required to pay a fine of Rp1 billion or serve an alternative imprisonment of 190 days.

Moreover, the prosecutor also demanded that Nadiem pay an additional Rp5.68 trillion in restitution, consisting of Rp809,596,125,000 and Rp4,871,469,603,758. If not, his assets could be confiscated and auctioned to cover the restitution. If his assets are insufficient, he will face an additional 9-year imprisonment.

The prosecutor believed that Nadiem violated Article 603 in conjunction with Article 18 of the Anti-Corruption Law, together with Article 20, letter c of the Criminal Code Law Number 1 of 2023.

In this case, the prosecutor accused Nadiem of enriching himself by Rp809.59 billion. He was also accused of benefiting 12 private companies, Chromebook vendors.

According to the prosecutor, the procurement of Chromebook laptops was solely for Nadiem's business interests. This led Google to increase its investment in PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa (AKAB), founded by Nadiem.

After the 2021 merger between Gojek and Tokopedia, PT AKAB was known as PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia. Google was listed as one of Gojek's long-standing business partners before the merger with Tokopedia.

The prosecutor estimated that the procurement of Chromebook caused state financial losses of Rp2.18 trillion. This figure includes Rp1.56 trillion from Chromebook laptop procurement according to the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency's audit, and US44,054,426 or equivalent to Rp621.38 billion (based on the lowest exchange rate from August 2020 to December 2022) due to Chrome Device Management procurement.