MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee put on a wanted list a key suspect in a criminal case into trafficking children born by surrogate mothers, a source in the law enforcement agencies told TASS.
The suspect, lawyer Konstantin Svitnev, has been charged in absentia over human trafficking, resulting in inflicting death by negligence, causing serious damage to health or other serious consequences as part of an organized group.
"Soon, the investigators will put him on an international wanted list," the source said.
In his turn, lawyer Igor Trunov, representing the suspects, told TASS that his client Svitnev was an attorney of an international level in the field of reproduction technologies and had been dealing with this issue for 25 years. The lawyers also seek the return of four children, who had been illegally detained as part of the case. "The children were made hostages of the criminal case into trafficking children," the lawyer explained.
Last week, Moscow’s Basmanny court arrested seven suspects in a case into trafficking infants born by surrogate mothers. One of them was placed under house arrest. Among those arrested besides doctors is a translator and a director general of a surrogacy center.
A criminal case was opened this January by the Odintsovo Investigative department in the Moscow Region under Part 1, Article 109 of the Russian Criminal Code (inflicting death by negligence) and the clauses of Part 2, Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code (human trafficking). It was opened after the discovery of a body of a newborn boy in one of the apartments in the Vniissok locality. Later the Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code was changed to a graver one, and the case was transferred to the central office of the Russian Investigative Committee. The suspects in the case were detained the day before with searches conducted at their house. They are accused of several counts of child trafficking.
According to preliminary data, a boy born by a surrogate mother in December of 2019 was under the nanny’s care in the apartment where three more infants, also born by surrogate mothers, resided. Investigators believe the newborns were staying there until their biological parents, foreign citizens, were taking care of the necessary paperwork, including documents required to transport the children abroad. The investigators and forensic specialists in the course of the investigation searched the apartment, questioned the building’s residents, the directors and the manager of the law firm on the issues of surrogate motherhood.
Preliminary expert findings showed the cause of newborn’s death was the sudden infant death syndrome. All the necessary paperwork was subpoenaed from the law firm which specialized in surrogate motherhood program, including the appropriate licenses and surrogate motherhood contracts. The three newborns found at the apartment were taken to the children’s city hospital.