Indonesia jails trafficking ring convicted of selling children for Singapore adoption
JAKARTA: A court in Indonesia convicted 19 members of a baby-trafficking syndicate on Tuesday after they were found guilty of selling dozens of children under the guise of adoption across the country and to Singapore.
At least 34 Indonesian babies were sold by the trafficking ring between 2023 and 2024. Its members were arrested last year, following a report of a baby kidnapping in Indonesia’s West Java province.
The Bandung District Court handed down the longest sentence of seven years in prison to 70-year-old Lie Siu Luan — also known by the aliases Lily and Popo — whom the court identified as the mastermind behind the operations.
“We declare that the defendant Lie Siu Luan … has been legally proven guilty of committing the criminal act of recruiting, harboring, sending, transferring or receiving a person … for the purpose of exploitation,” presiding judge Gatot Ardian Agustriono said as he read out the ruling.
