IRAN
Iran arrests 28 in baby-trafficking ring
Iranmania
Iran has cracked down on a baby-trafficking network that stole 63 newborns from hospitals in and around Tehran and sold them to barren couples, press reports said.
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Iran arrests 28 in baby-trafficking ring
Iran has cracked down on a baby-trafficking network that stole 63 newborns from hospitals in and around Tehran and sold them to barren couples, press reports said.
Tehran police arrested 28 men and women, including doctors, hospital staff and birth registration bureau clerks, who allegedly sold the babies to infertile couples for 30 mln rials (about $3,300) each over the past three years, the reports said.
Members of the ring in maternity wards sometimes told parents their babies were stillborn and refused to hand over the bodies, or they used female thieves to break into hospitals and abduct the babies, hiding them under their head-to-toe chadors.
They would then forge fake birth certificates in order to obtain legal identification cards for the babies.
Police were alerted to the crimes by an anonymous call from a man who claimed to be a registration bureau clerk in a southern Tehran suburb, and who said some of his colleagues took bribes to issue birth certificates.
Investigations revealed 63 identification cards were issued for children with no hospital records.
The police were also approached by a guilt-stricken couple who said they had bought their 18-month-old and felt the infant had to be returned to its real parents after they had learned it was stolen from them.
Barren after 10 years of marriage and daunted by the difficult adoption procedures, the pair had decided to buy a baby, the Etemad daily wrote.
The police have so far been able to identify nine of the babies and have returned two to their biological parents.