Uzbekistan, January 08: An Uzbek court has sentenced six people to between seven and 10 years in prison for selling dozens of newborn babies, a pro-government website says.
The suspects, who initially included 10 women and two men, were arrested in 2009 on suspicion of organising the sale of a four-month-old baby for $3,000, gorizont.uz website said.
The court hearing “confirmed 70 cases of unlawful child fostering, including four cases in which the babies were taken out of the country,” said the website, which is close to the Uzbek law enforcement authorities.
The report said that six other defendants received suspended sentences.
The group was headed by Ikbarkhon Hamidova, 63, who worked as a lawyer at several maternity hospitals, the report said.
——–Agencies