Indonesia jails former education minister for 10 years in Google Chromebook graft case

An Indonesian corruption court on Tuesday sentenced former Education Minister Nadiem Makarim, a co-founder of ride- hailing and payments giant GoJek, to 10 years in prison for corruption.

Makarim was found guilty in the case linked to the procurement of Google Chromebooks for schools under the country's education digitalization program that ran from 2019 to 2022.

Makarim, who served as education minister from 2019 to 2024, was also fined 1 billion rupiah ($55,870) and ordered to pay 809.6 billion rupiah in restitution. He faces an additional five-year prison term if he fails to repay the amount.

Prosecutors had demanded an 18-year prison sentence for Makarim, a 1 billion rupiah fine, and restitution of 5.6 trillion rupiah.

Indonesia's Attorney General named Makarim a suspect in September 2025 in the case, alleging that he and other officials steered technical specifications toward Google products under an education digitalization program.

In court statements, prosecutors said lower-specification Chromebooks should have cost about 3 million rupiah each but were procured for around 6 million rupiah per unit.

The case is among the highest-profile corruption prosecutions involving a former Indonesian minister.

— CNBC's Syazwani Sanep contributed to this report.

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