A court in Jakarta on Tuesday sentenced a senior Indonesian police officer to life in prison for trafficking five kilos of methamphetamines seized by law enforcement.
Teddy Minahasa Putra, a former police chief in West Sumatra who was awaiting a new job before his trial, was found guilty of ordering a subordinate to replace seized methamphetamine with potassium alum.
He then trafficked in drugs with the help of a civilian middleman, the court found.
Prosecutors had sought the death sentence against Mr. Putra, but the court cited his 30 years of police service as a mitigating factor and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The convict’s lawyer has announced that he will appeal, local media reported.
Indonesia has one of the toughest anti-drug laws in the world, including the death penalty for drug traffickers.
According to a report by Amnesty International, the Southeast Asian country has handed down at least 114 death sentences since 2021, 82% of them drug-related.