JAKARTA: Eighteen women and one man who operated a trafficking network that sold infants, including to families in Singapore, were convicted by a court in Indonesia on Tuesday (July 21).
The leader of the group, a 70-year-old woman named Lie Siu Luan, received the longest prison sentence of seven years. She recruited the other members of the network to find infants for trafficking, broker deals and forge documents. Prosecutors, however, had sought a 10-year jail sentence for Lie.
Eighteen other members received jail terms between three and six-and-a-half years. This group included brokers, caregivers, and women who pretended to be the babies’ biological mothers. At least one defendant has said she will appeal the judgment. The lone male among the group was given a jail sentence of six-and-a-half years.
The group has been on trial since April.
According to the prosecution, at least 34 babies were trafficked from 2023 to 2025.
The news of the baby-trafficking network first broke out last year, when a man told the police that his newborn baby had been taken without his consent. The investigation that followed revealed the network that was operating in West Java.
The police had discovered that babies, most of whom were two to three months old, were first kept in Bandung and then later sent on to Pontianak, West Kalimantan. There, they were given falsified passports and family IDs.
From there, some of the infants were brought to Singapore through Jakarta, and authorities in Indonesia said that 12 of the 20 babies who were supposed to be adopted in Singapore were already in the city-state.
One of the network’s members admitted that they had arranged adoptions for at least four Singapore families, adding that she was told that for each baby, she would be paid around S$17,800. The woman testified in court to believing that the adoptions in Singapore were being processed legally, and that an associate based in the city-state had persuaded her of this.
Whether the babies will be allowed to stay in Singapore or whether they will be returned to Indonesia is still unknown.
Motivated by financial hardship
The investigation, which began in 2025, showed that the main motivation for Indonesian women to give their babies up was the promise of a high amount in return, though some parents never even receive the money they bargained for.
The victims that the network targeted typically include young women or minors who become pregnant out of wedlock.
Police in Indonesia quoted a suspect who said that they contacted a pregnant woman on Facebook and promised to give her 10 million rupiah (around S$755). They later only gave the woman 600,000 rupiah (around S$45), but took the baby anyway.
In July 2025, the Indonesian police arrested 12 people said to be involved in a baby trafficking syndicate. Six babies were rescued, five of whom were reportedly set to be sold in Singapore. /TISG
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