Person
Irwandi Yusuf
Indonesian politician politician, academic, veterinarian, and former activist with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)
Irwandi Yusuf (born 2 August 1960) is an Indonesian politician politician, academic, veterinarian, and former activist with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). He served as the 11th and 13th Governor of Aceh, making history as the first former GAM combatant to hold the office. He began his professional career as a lecturer at Syiah Kuala University's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine after completing his degree there in 1987.
Irwandi joined GAM in 1990. Throughout the Insurgency in Aceh from 1990 to 2001, he served as Special Staff to the GAM Central Command, using various aliases while working as a propagandist and strategist. On 23 May 2003, he was arrested by Indonesian authorities and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment for treason at Keudah Prison in Banda Aceh. He managed to escape during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, subsequently fleeing to Europe.
Following the 2005 Helsinki Peace Agreement, Irwandi served as a spokesperson for GAM. Irwandi first won a term as governor in the 2006 Aceh regional election as an independent candidate (non-party). Muhammad Nazar was his running mate in 2006. During his first term (2007–2012), he enacted key regional policies, including the universal Aceh Health Insurance (Jaminan Kesehatan Aceh) program and a logging moratorium.
However Irwandi lost his 2012 re-election campaign to Zaini Abdullah following a strong challenge and intensive campaigning by other local political rivals. Allegations that he may have wrongfully granted land concessions of protected high conservation value land to palm oil companies also surfaced before the election. Following the 2012 election, he founded the Aceh National Party.
In 2017, he was reelected as the Governor of Aceh, with Nova Iriansyah as his partner. On the next year, Irwandi was arrested along with Bener Meriah Regent Ahmadi and eight other individuals on corruption charges. On 8 April 2019, Yusuf was sentenced to seven years in prison for accepting bribes from Ahmadi totaling Rp 1.05 billion (US$74,084) in exchange for granting number of infrastructure projects in the regency. He was also found to have accepted Rp 8.7 billion in gratuities from businessmen during his two terms as governor.