Nineteen members of child trafficking ring jailed over illegal adoptions

A court in West Java, Indonesia, has sentenced 19 people to prison for their roles in a child trafficking syndicate that bought and sold babies for illegal adoption, including sending children to Singapore.

The group was convicted of trafficking 34 babies and forging documents to make the adoptions appear legitimate. Authorities said at least 20 of the babies were intended for Singapore, with 12 already taken there before the operation was uncovered.

The syndicate’s leader, 70-year-old Lie Siu Luan, was sentenced to seven years in prison after admitting she supplied babies to at least four people in Singapore, who allegedly agreed to pay a minimum of 18,000 Singapore dollars for each child. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence.

Investigators said Lie recruited people to source babies, care for them, forge official documents and act as brokers. She told the court she did not know her actions were illegal and claimed she believed, based on information from a Singaporean associate, that sending babies abroad for adoption was permitted. Many of the other defendants also claimed they believed they were helping families and were unaware they were committing crimes.

Six women who cared for the trafficked babies were each sentenced to three years and four months in prison. Two female brokers received the same sentence, while the only male defendant, Djaka Hamdani Hutabarat, was sentenced to six years and seven months for acting as a broker.

The syndicate’s chief broker, Astri Fitrinika, also received six years and seven months in prison after being found responsible for sourcing most of the trafficked babies.

The case came to light after Dani Hidayat reported that his newborn baby had been taken by a woman he met through a Facebook adoption group. The woman, later identified as Fitrinika, had offered to adopt the child in exchange for money but failed to make the agreed payment. Police later arrested her and uncovered evidence linking her to a wider trafficking network.

Another key figure, Lai Siu Ha, who was convicted of falsifying official documents including birth certificates and family registration cards, was also sentenced to six years and seven months. Her lawyers have said they are appealing the conviction, arguing there was no evidence she forged the documents herself.

Lie accepted the court’s ruling, with her lawyers noting that the sentence was lower than the 10 years requested by prosecutors. Indonesia’s Ministry of Social Affairs said the rescued children will undergo assessments to determine whether they can safely return to their biological families or require alternative long-term care in accordance with child protection laws. Eight babies remain under state care at an orphanage in West Java.