JAKARTA \u2013 Prosecutors on June 30 were seeking up to 10 years\u2019 jail for members of an alleged baby trafficking syndicate<\/span><\/a> accused of selling at least 34 infants, including several sent to Singapore, in one of Indonesia\u2019s largest cross-border human trafficking cases in recent years.<\/p>\n The 19 defendants \u2013 18 women and one man \u2013 have been on trial since April<\/span><\/a> over allegations that they trafficked at least 34 babies between 2023 and 2025. Prosecutors said at least 12 of the infants were sent to Singapore, with each baby selling for 200 million rupiah (S$14,500) to 250 million rupiah.<\/p>\n At the centre of the case is 70-year-old Lie Siu Luan, also known as Lily or Popo, whom investigators have described as the alleged ringleader. Prosecutors have said she coordinated the recruitment of babies, prepared documents and arranged for infants to be sent overseas.<\/p>\n At Bandung District Court on June 30, Prosecutor Cucu Gantina asked judges to declare that Lie \u201chas been legally proven guilty of committing the criminal act of recruiting, harbouring, sending, transferring, or receiving a person… for the purpose of exploiting said person within the territory of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia\u201d.<\/p>\n Prosecutors demanded a 10-year sentence for Astri Fitrinika, who is alleged to be one of the syndicate\u2019s main recruiters, as well as for fellow alleged recruiters Djaka Hamdani and Elin, as well as for Lai Su Hua, who is accused of falsifying state documents related to adoption requirements.<\/p>\n Five-year jail terms were sought for each of the other 14 defendants, who allegedly acted as caretakers of the babies.<\/p>\n After the prosecutor read out the demands, both Lie and Astri started crying.<\/p>\n Prosecutors demanded a 10-year sentence for Astri Fitrinika, who is alleged to be one of the syndicate\u2019s main recruiters.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: ALVA KHALIFA<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Lie\u2019s lawyer Sendi Sanjaya said he and his client respected the prosecutors\u2019 demands but challenged some of the accusations.<\/p>\n \u201cOne crucial element that the prosecutors mentioned is exploitation. But the facts of the trial show that there was no exploitation whatsoever. The adopted children were healthy and their whereabouts were known,\u201d he told reporters after the hearing. \u201cSo the element of exploitation was not met. We will mount a defence based on the facts of the trial.\u201d<\/p>\n At the centre of the case is 70-year-old Lie Siu Luan, also known as Lily or Popo, whom investigators have described as the alleged ringleader.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: ALVA KHALIFA<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Astri\u2019s lawyer Hendri Samuel Tampubolon, on the other hand, said he was disappointed that the jail term the prosecutors sought for his client was the same as that for Lie.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mastermind was Popo. We have to understand that Astri was under the control of Popo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added that Astri had cooperated with the police and prosecutors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will bring this all up when we present our defence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The case surfaced in July 2025<\/span><\/a> when the Indonesian authorities detained about a dozen suspects in West Java, following a report from a West Java resident named Dani Hidayat.<\/p>\n Dani had joined a Facebook group for people who were looking to adopt, because his wife was heavily pregnant at the time. He was then contacted by Astri, who offered him eight million rupiah for the baby.<\/p>\n The Singapore and Indonesian governments said on Jan 9 that they are\u00a0working together on the case<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n During the trial, Lie said four Singaporeans allegedly acted as adoption agents for the ring, and identified them as \u201cPetter\u201d, \u201cJohn\u201d, \u201cMr Tan\u201d and \u201cMr Chew\u201d.<\/p>\n The trial\u2019s next hearing is set for next week, during which the defendants will present their defences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n JAKARTA \u2013 Prosecutors on June 30 were seeking up to 10 years\u2019 jail for members of an alleged baby trafficking syndicate accused of selling at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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