Arya News - Lie Siu Luan, 70, also known by the aliases Popo and Lily, was accused of coordinating the recruitment of the babies, preparing forged adoption documents, and arranging for the infants to be sent overseas.
JAKARTA – The mastermind of an Indonesian baby-smuggling syndicate accused of selling dozens of infants, including about a dozen sent to Singapore, was found guilty of human trafficking on July 21 and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Lie Siu Luan, 70, also known by the aliases Popo and Lily, was accused of coordinating the recruitment of the babies, preparing forged adoption documents, and arranging for the infants to be sent overseas.
“We declare that the defendant Lie Siu Luan has 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,” Judge Gatot Ardian Agustriono, who heads the trial’s three-judge panel, said as he read out the ruling at the Bandung District Court in West Java on July 21.
The sentence was lower than the prosecutors’ demand of 10 years’ imprisonment.
Lie is one of 19 defendants – 18 of them women – who have been on trial since April 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 to 250 million rupiah (S$14,400 to S$18,000).
All 18 of Lie’s fellow defendants were also found guilty. The syndicate’s accused chief recruiter Astri Fitrinika was sentenced to six years and seven months’ imprisonment, as were fellow recruiters Djaka Hamdani and Elin Marlina.
Lai Su Hua, who was accused of falsifying state documents related to adoption requirements, was also sentenced to six years and seven months’ jail.
Prosecutors had demanded 10-year sentences for all four.
The other 14 defendants, who acted as caregivers for the babies, were given prison sentences of three years and four months, lower than the five-year sentences demanded by prosecutors.
During the course of the investigation and trial, Lie and Astri both admitted to most of the offences they were accused of, but maintained that none of the children were abducted, but rather, voluntarily given up by their parents, and that all of the children were treated well and not abused.
Lie’s lawyer, Sendi Sanjaya, told reporters after the hearing that his client would not be appealing against the sentence.
“Our client accepts the judges’ ruling,” he said. While the judges did not read out their considerations for their decision, Sendi added that Lie’s cooperation with law enforcement and her advanced age contributed to the lighter sentence.
Of the other defendants, only Lai said that she would appeal against her sentence, while Tjen Se Ha, one of the caregivers, said that she would think about it. The rest of the defendants all accepted their sentences.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Teti Saraswati said that the prosecution team would decide whether or not to appeal within seven days.
She confirmed that eight babies who had been bought by the syndicate but not yet adopted would be taken into the custody of the West Java social services agency.
The fate of the babies who have already been placed with adoptive families, including those in Singapore, remains unclear.
“Investigators are still looking into the matter,” Teti added.
The baby-trafficking case first surfaced in July 2025 when Indonesian authorities detained about a dozen suspects in West Java, following a report from a West Java resident named Dani Hidayat.
Dani had joined a Facebook group for people who were looking to adopt children because his wife was heavily pregnant at the time and he felt that he was unable to provide for the baby. He was then contacted by one Astri, who offered him 8 million rupiah for the baby.
Tata Sudrajat, senior director for Advocacy Campaign and Government Relations at Save The Children Indonesia, said that the root cause of cases like this one was poverty. “But poverty cannot be an excuse to perpetrate violence against a child, and human trafficking is a form of violence,” he told The Straits Times.
Tata said that in addition to prosecuting the syndicate, the authorities should consider pressing criminal charges against the babies’ biological parents, as well as possibly getting their parental rights revoked.
As for the babies who have already been adopted, Tata said that the right thing would be for them to go through the proper legal adoption process in Indonesia.
“Both the child and the adoptive parents must be assessed, and then they have to go through a matching process under the supervision of a social worker, which takes around six months. Only after that will the adoption be legally confirmed,” he said.
He acknowledged that the process could be lengthy and complicated, but said that this was in the best interest of all parties.
“The regulations are in place to protect everyone – not only the children, but the adoptive parents as well,” he said.