New Details on the Case of Selling a Newborn for $2000

The Investigative Committee of Armenia has revealed new details regarding the case of the sale of a newborn child as a result of extensive investigative and procedural actions conducted by its main department for particularly important cases.

According to the facts gathered during the investigation, a 39-year-old woman from the Ararat region, who was about eight months pregnant, made an agreement in June 2020 with a resident of Yerevan to sell her child for $2000 with the assistance of an obstetrician-gynecologist and a midwife from one of the medical institutions in the same region.

In accordance with the agreement, the Ararat resident was admitted to a medical facility in Yerevan, where she gave birth to a baby girl on July 8, 2020. On July 13, 2020, the 39-year-old woman was discharged from the medical facility and handed the baby over to the buyer, also a resident of Yerevan, receiving part of the payment and agreeing to finalize the financial matters after fully formalizing the adoption documents.

Moreover, after being warned about the responsibility established by the Criminal Code of Armenia for providing false information, and being fully aware that the husband of the aforementioned Yerevan resident, a 43-year-old man, was not the biological father of her newborn daughter, the woman from Ararat submitted obviously false information to the civil status registration body on July 13, 2020. As a result, the 43-year-old man acquired parental rights and received a legally fraudulent state certificate regarding paternity.

Based on sufficient evidence, charges have been brought against the Ararat resident under part 1 of Article 168 of the Criminal Code of Armenia (the purchase of a child for the purpose of placement in the care of the taker or the sale of the child for that purpose) and under Article 169.1 (providing false information to civil status registration bodies). Charges have also been filed against the Yerevan resident under part 1 of Article 168, while her husband, the obstetrician-gynecologist, and the midwife from the medical facility are charged under part 1 of Article 38-168 of the Criminal Code. As a precautionary measure, a signature was applied to prevent them from leaving.

The preliminary investigation has been completed, and the criminal case has been sent to the prosecutor's office with a request to confirm the indictment.