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An Indonesian court has handed down prison sentences to 19 people found guilty of taking part in a trafficking network that smuggled at least 34 babies to Singapore, with the alleged mastermind receiving a seven-year term.
Judge Gatot Ardian Agustriono sentenced the defendants to prison terms ranging from three years and four months to seven years, local news outlet JAPOSCO reported Tuesday.
The babies were reportedly sold for as much as 18,000 Singapore dollars, equivalent to nearly $14,000, each. At least 12 of the trafficked children are believed to remain in Singapore.
The court proceedings showed that the syndicate obtained babies from several areas of West Java before moving them to Depok, a city within the Greater Jakarta metropolitan region.
The infants were later taken to a house in Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo, where caregivers selected by the network looked after them.
Some of the babies were then transported through Jakarta and taken to Singapore, according to details presented during the trial.
Lie Siu Luan, a 70-year-old woman also known as Popo, received the longest prison term after the court identified her as the mastermind behind the trafficking operation.
The judge found that Lie had actively recruited several people and exercised control over a network that operated both across Indonesia and internationally.
Astri Fitrinika, who was described as a recruiter responsible for finding babies, was sentenced to six years and seven months.
Lai Siu Ha received the same sentence after being accused of supplying false information for official documents, including birth certificates and Indonesian family cards, which are household registration documents listing members of a family.
Djaka Hamdani Hutabarat, the only male defendant, and his wife, Elin Marlina, were also sentenced to six years and seven months after the court found that they had acted as brokers in the operation.
Prosecutors had requested 10-year prison terms for five of the defendants, but the court imposed shorter sentences.
Six other defendants, who had posed as the babies' biological mothers or caregivers, were each sentenced to three years and four months in prison.
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