Senior police officer sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking

Senior police officer sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking in Indonesia

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.

Senior police officer sentenced to life imprisonment for drug trafficking in Indonesia

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.