MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/: Moscow’s Basmanny Court arrested three more people involved in the case of trading in toddlers of surrogate mothers, while putting the fourth under house arrest, court spokeswoman Irina Morozova told TASS.
The newly arrested include a gynecologist, an interpreter and a surrogate motherhood center CEO.
"The court satisfied the request of the investigation, and put Roman Yemashev, Vladislav Melnikov and Kirill Anisimov into custody, and put Tatiana Blinova under house arrest. All suspects will remain in custody until September 14," the spokeswoman said.
Previously, the court arrested four more gynecologists within this case.
The case
A criminal case was launched in January this year, after the body of a newborn male was discovered in a settlement in the suburban region outside Moscow. The case, initially classified as involuntary manslaughter, was later upped with heavier counts. The suspects are now being charged in several cases of illicit baby trafficking.
According to the investigation, the deceased toddler, born in December 2019, was being looked after by a babysitter, along with three other infants, also born to surrogate mothers. Detectives believe that the children stayed there while their biological parents - foreign citizens – filled out the paperwork to relocate the newborn children abroad.
The preliminary forensic examination indicates that the toddler died from sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. The detectives looking into the case requested all relevant documents from the law firm that handled the surrogate motherhood programs. The three other toddlers were taken away and placed in a local infant hospital.
