Four women will stand trial for organizing a scheme through which a baby born in Chisinau was to be sold for “adoption” to a Romanian couple. The child’s mother, who is from Ukraine, was admitted to a maternity hospital in Moldova to give birth. The case involves the president of a children’s foundation, the head of a maternity hospital, a notary, a woman from Ukraine and the couple from Romania, IPN reports.
The Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Causes (PCCOCS) said the members of the criminal group lured the pregnant woman to give birth in Moldova. The president of the children’s foundation was the organizer and perpetrator, while the maternity hospital’s director and the notary were accomplices.
“The victim, who was pregnant in December 2022, was identified in Ukraine by the female co-perpetrator of the crime from the same neighboring state, who was traveling regularly to Moldova. She acted together with the president of the foundation in Moldova, who had the role of organizer of the scheme. The woman arrived in Moldova towards the middle of the month in response to their invitation to facilitate birth giving outside the war,” PCCOCS noted.
The pregnant woman, aged 38, has more children in Ukraine and she left them in the care of relatives. Arriving in Moldova, she was accommodated at a hotel in Chisinau and, until she was to give birth in the second half of December, she had been allegedly subjected to psychological pressure by members of the criminal group to refuse to raise the child who was to be born. She was pressed to give the child to the Romanian couple (in exchange for a sum of money and goods) or she would have been deprived of parental rights in Ukraine for the reason that she didn’t have enough financial resources to support all the children.
The woman was later hospitalized to give birth to the child through the agency of the head of the maternity hospital. After she gave birth, the accused took advantage not only of the state of war in Ukraine and the difficult financial situation of the victim, but also of the fact that she doesn’t know the Romanian language. Therefore, they made her sign both the declaration establishing paternity and the declaration by which the Romanian buyer was to become the legal father of the child. As a result, the newborn’s birth certificate included the surname of the buyer as the biological father of the child, which would have allowed him to leave Moldova together with the newborn. In return, the foundation president promised particular benefits to the notary.
The law enforcement officers stopped the illegal activities after being notified by the placement center where the victim was sheltered. The case is to be tried by the Buiucani Court of Chisinau.
The couple of buyers will be investigated in Romania, based on the request of PCCOCS.
The newborn girl is now in safe conditions, together with her mother.
Under the Criminal Code, child trafficking for the purpose of selling and buying a newborn carries 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment and ban on holding particular posts for a period of three to five years, or life imprisonment.
