A panel of judges at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Tuesday sentenced Nadiem Makarim, the co-founder of ride-hailing and payments giant Gojek and Indonesia’s education minister from 2019 to 2024, to 10 years in prison for corruption linked to the procurement of more than one million Chromebook laptops for schools. The court also imposed a Rp1 billion fine and ordered Makarim to pay Rp809.59 billion in restitution, with an additional five years’ imprisonment if the sum is not settled. The verdict, which followed a trial that drew intense public attention and live television coverage, was not unanimous: one of the five judges, Andi Saputra, issued a dissenting opinion arguing that Makarim should have been acquitted of all charges.

The majority ruling found that Makarim had abused his authority as minister by steering the digitalisation programme for schools towards devices running Google’s Chrome operating system, a policy the court said was designed to benefit the US technology firm. The judges cited a series of meetings between Makarim and Google executives, the placement of special advisers in roles that exceeded their formal remit, and the replacement of officials who resisted the Chromebook plan. The court accepted an audit by the state development finance comptroller (BPKP) that calculated state losses at Rp1.56 trillion, derived from the difference between the net payments made and the fair market value of the laptops. The panel also concluded that Makarim, who retained a shareholding in GoTo—the holding company of Gojek—while in office, had a conflict of interest, as Google had invested nearly $787 million in the group during his tenure.

Makarim, who had pleaded not guilty, immediately announced he would appeal, telling reporters that the verdict “ignored all the facts presented in court” and that he was being criminalised for a policy decision. His legal team said it would file a complaint with the Judicial Commission over the judges’ decision to close the session without giving the defendant an opportunity to state his position on the ruling. The dissenting judge, Andi Saputra, a former legal journalist appointed as an ad hoc corruption judge in 2025, argued that the prosecution had failed to prove criminal intent or an unlawful act, that the ministerial regulation in question specified an operating system rather than a particular brand, and that there was no evidence Makarim personally received any funds from the procurement or that Google’s investment in GoTo was causally linked to the policy.

Viewed from financial centres in Singapore and Hong Kong, the conviction of one of Southeast Asia’s best-known tech entrepreneurs is being assessed for its potential impact on investor sentiment. Analysts note that the case has unfolded against a backdrop of broader concerns about legal certainty and governance in Indonesia, with some international observers pointing to the verdict as a test of the country’s business climate. The court separately rejected a prosecution demand for an additional Rp4.87 trillion in restitution linked to an alleged unexplained increase in Makarim’s wealth, ruling that such a claim should be pursued through a money-laundering investigation rather than within the current corruption trial. The appeal process is expected to begin in the coming weeks, while the attorney general’s office has been asked to continue tracing assets through a separate financial crime inquiry.