Jakarta. Former Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas on Tuesday denied receiving any money in an alleged corruption scheme involving Indonesia's additional Hajj quota, after prosecutors accused him of taking $271,500 in fees from private travel operators.

Speaking after the opening hearing of his trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Yaqut, the main defendant in the case, said he did not understand the indictment brought by prosecutors from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), arguing that the charges against him were based on assumptions rather than clear evidence.

"Frankly, I don't understand the indictment because other people received the money, yet I am the one being charged based on assumptions," Yaqut told reporters.

"Once again, I want to make it clear that I never received a single rupiah from the case that has put me in this position," he said.

Yaqut urged prosecutors and the panel of judges to bring before the court anyone alleged to have profited from the allocation and sale of additional Hajj quotas.

"Those who initiated efforts to profit from the quota, those who traded quotas and received fees, they are the ones who should be brought here," he said. "Anyone who benefited and increased their wealth should be presented before the court."

The case centers on an additional quota of 20,000 pilgrims granted to Indonesia by Saudi Arabia for the 2024 Hajj. Yaqut, who was religious affairs minister at the time, divided the additional allocation equally between the government-managed regular Hajj program and the privately operated special Hajj program.

The KPK alleges that the 50-50 allocation violated Indonesia's Hajj Administration Law, under which 92% of the available quota should be reserved for regular pilgrims and 8% for the special Hajj program.

Prosecutors allege that financial interests were behind the decision to give private operators a much larger share of the additional quota than provided under the statutory allocation.

During Tuesday's hearing, prosecutors accused Yaqut of receiving $271,500 in fees from Hajj travel companies in connection with the allocation of additional places to private operators. Yaqut denies the allegation.

Prosecutors estimate that the scheme caused Rp 622 billion ($34.9 million) in state losses.

Prosecutor Fahmi Idris said part of the alleged loss stemmed from thousands of regular Hajj pilgrims being deprived of places that prosecutors argue should have been allocated to them but were instead given to private Hajj operators.

The stakes surrounding Hajj quotas are particularly high in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country. Indonesia normally receives an annual allocation of around 210,000 pilgrims from Saudi Arabia, while millions of prospective pilgrims face waiting periods that can exceed 15 years and stretch beyond two decades in some provinces.

That makes additional Hajj slots commercially valuable, particularly for private operators serving customers willing to pay considerably more to perform the pilgrimage without joining the lengthy regular-program queue.

Two other defendants appeared alongside Yaqut: Ishfah Abidal Aziz, his former aide, and Ismail Adham, operations director of Maktour, a premium Hajj travel operator.

The KPK has also named Asrul Azis Taba, a commissioner of Hajj travel company Raudah Eksati Utama and chairman of the Indonesian Hajj and Umrah Organizers Association (Kesthuri), as a suspect in the case.

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