Jakarta. Indonesia’s Supreme Court has overturned the acquittal of a Chinese national accused of large-scale illegal gold mining in West Kalimantan, sentencing him to 3.5 years in prison and imposing a Rp 30 billion ($1.8 million) fine, court documents show.

The ruling targets Yu Hao, who was charged with illegally extracting 774 kilograms of gold and 937 kilograms of silver worth Rp 1 trillion in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan. The decision was issued by Supreme Court of Indonesia under cassation case No. 5691 K/PID.SUS/2025, dated June 13, 2025, and was decided unanimously by a panel led by Justice Yohanes Priyana.

Yu Hao had previously walked free after the Pontianak High Court granted his appeal and acquitted him. That verdict was annulled by the Supreme Court, which reinstated the prison sentence and fine.

Following the ruling, prosecutors moved to enforce the verdict. The Ketapang District Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that Yu Hao was taken into custody and transferred to Pontianak Prison on June 25, 2025.

Legal experts welcomed the decision, calling it an important corrective. Herdiansyah Hamzah Castro, a law scholar at Mulawarman University, said the earlier acquittal had risked undermining public confidence in Indonesia’s legal system.

“If an illegal miner causing enormous losses to the state can be acquitted, it signals something is fundamentally wrong with law enforcement,” Herdiansyah said on Monday. He argued that consistent and firm rulings are essential to deter illegal mining and uphold a sense of justice.

Herdiansyah also warned that the Pontianak High Court’s overturned ruling could have set a dangerous precedent if left uncorrected, potentially emboldening future illegal mining operations. “Such decisions risk being cited to justify similar crimes in the future,” he said.

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