Jakarta. Disgraced police general Teddy Minahasa was sentenced to life on Tuesday after he was found guilty of stealing 5 kilograms of methamphetamine from an evidence locker and selling them with the help of other officers and a civilian.

Prosecutors had earlier demanded the death sentence for him under the country's tough anti-narcotics law, which could send convicts to death row for illegal distribution and sale of just 5 grams of non-plant narcotics.

The panel of judges at the West Jakarta District Court considered his clean record prior to the case and decades of dedication to the National Police to deliver a lesser sentence.

But Presiding Judge Jon Sarman Saragih criticized the defendant for twisting the facts and showing no remorse throughout hearings.

Teddy immediately confirmed that he will appeal to the higher court.

"We have been asked to lodge an appeal because the verdict read out [by judges] is basically the copy of the prosecutor's indictment," Hotman Paris Hutapea, an attorney for Teddy, told reporters after the sentencing hearing.

Teddy made headlines last year after he was dramatically detained shortly before he was supposed to be inaugurated as the East Java police chief. He is accused of stealing 5 kilograms of meth from the evidence locker of a district police office in West Sumatra, where he was the provincial police chief.

In order to avoid suspicions, Teddy had asked his men to replace the stolen meth with alums, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said there are no mitigating factors that could provide leniency in Teddy’s case.

Earlier, they also recommended prison sentences between 17 and 20 years for four co-defendants including three policemen and a civilian woman for becoming complicit in the crime.

But Teddy denied any wrongdoing, arguing that he was implicated only because he was the superior of co-defendants in the case.