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.