Top Indonesian police officer given life sentence for drug trafficking

JAKARTA — A high-ranking Indonesian police officer was given a life sentence on Tuesday (May 9) for trafficking 5kg of methamphetamine that was originally confiscated as criminal evidence.

A court in Jakarta found Teddy Minahasa Putra guilty of ordering his subordinate to swap the seized methamphetamine with potassium alum in a plot to illicitly sell drugs.

Putra, who was previously the police chief for West Sumatra province, then trafficked the methamphetamine through a civilian intermediary, the court heard.

Putra's lawyer told reporters outside the court that an appeal would be filed, local media reported.

Prosecutors had sought a death sentence for Putra, but the judge found his 30-year service on the police force as a mitigating factor.

Putra will instead remain behind bars until his death.

Indonesia has some of the world's toughest anti-narcotics laws, including the death penalty for drug traffickers.

The country handed out at least 114 death sentences in 2021, with 82 per cent of those given for drug-related offences, according to an Amnesty International report. AFP