Home » News » Irwandi Yusuf, the ‘Lion of Aceh’ who was fired by President Jokowi

Irwandi Yusuf, the ‘Lion of Aceh’ who was fired by President Jokowi

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia

President Joko Widodo as of today, Thursday (15/10), has officially dismissed Irwandi Yusuf from his position as Governor of Aceh 2017-2022. Jokowi fired Irawandi after being named a suspect in a criminal case corruption in 2018 ago,

Irwandi was convicted in the case of corruption in the Aceh Special Autonomy Fund (DOKA) for the 2018 fiscal year worth IDR 1.05 billion and gratuities worth IDR 8.71 billion. In April 2019, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison and a fine of IDR 300 million, a subsidiary of 3 months in prison.

Four months later, in August 2019, the Jakarta High Court (PT) strengthened Irwandi’s sentence to 8 years in prison after the panel of judges granted the appeal of the Public Prosecutor (JPU) to Irwandi’s verdict.


The verdict against Irawandi returned to seven years after the Supreme Court stated that it refused to improve its verdict, in case number 444 K / PID.SUS / 2020.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) executed Irwandi at the Sukamiskin Penitentiary (Lapas), Bandung, West Java on 14 February.

Irwandi is the first Governor of Aceh since the peace between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was realized in 2005 through the Helsinki agreement.

He officially joined GAM at the end of the Soeharto government. In his interview with Time in 2006, he admitted that he was inspired by a book so that he became interested in the organization led by Hasan Di Tiro.

“Maybe because the contents of the Singa Aceh book stuck to my head, I later joined GAM,” said Irwandi.

The 60-year-old man is a former GAM central figure. Irwandi served as a special staff of the GAM army central command for approximately three years from 1998 to 2001. He was also GAM Intelligence Chief.

As a Special Staff of the GAM Army Central Command, he was arrested in early 2003, then sentenced to 9 years for treason.

In late 2004, when Aceh was swept away by the tsunami waves, Irwandi fled to Finland. He was then entrusted with being the GAM negotiator with the Indonesian government in the Helsinki agreement, Sweden.

Irwandi was officially elected as the first Governor of Aceh in 2006, a year after Aceh officially came under the jurisdiction of the Indonesian government through the Helsinki Agreement on August 15, 2005. He was inaugurated with his deputy Muhammad Nazar, on February 8, 2007 by the Minister of Home Affairs Mohammad Ma’ruf in front of 67 members The Aceh DPR, as well as a number of other GAM leaders.

His leadership continued until the second period after winning the 20017 Aceh Pilgub. However, his career was not as smooth as the previous period.

Irwandi was arrested by the KPK at the Governor’s Hall on Tuesday night, July 2 2018. The total money seized during the operation amounted to Rp. 500 million. It is suspected that the money is related to the Aceh special autonomy (otsus) fund.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Tjahjo Kumolo then appointed Nova Iriansyah as acting (plt) Governor of Aceh.

(thr/wis)

[Gambas:Video CNN]

– .

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.