MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. The key suspect in a criminal case into trafficking children born by surrogate mothers, lawyer Konstantin Svitnev, is currently staying in Prague and is ready to return to Russia as soon as international air service is resumed, attorney Igor Trunov, who represents the suspects, told TASS on Sunday.
"Svitnev has confirmed that he is in Prague. He is ready to come to Russia," Trunov said, adding that Svitnev had "received no summons from the Investigative Committee" after a conversation with the investigators in charge of the case.
"He told me he cannot come to Russia because of the quarantine, with air service with Russia being still suspended," Trumov said. "On Monday, we will ask the investigators to show a writ on putting Svitnev on the wanted list and on charges brought against him."
Svitnev, in turn, also said he had received no summons from the Russian Investigative Committee. "No one has contacted me personally. The situation looks strange to me. Over the six months of the so-called investigation, no one has ever bothered to speak to me, to invite me for an interview, at least to issue a summons," he told the Govorit Moskva radio station. "I am not hiding. I am in Prague. I plan to return to Moscow as soon as air service is resumed".
A source in law enforcement agencies told TASS earlier the Russian Investigative Committee had put Svitnev on the federal wanted list and brought charges against him in absentia.
Moscow’s Basmanny district court last week arrested seven suspects in a case into trafficking infants born by surrogate mothers. The key suspect was put on the federal wanted list. Among those arrested besides doctors is a translator and a director general of a surrogacy center.
A criminal case was opened in January by the Odintsovo Investigative department in the Moscow Region on charges of inflicting death by negligence (part 1, article 109 of the Russian Criminal Code) and human trafficking (clauses of part 2, article 127.1 of the Criminal Code). The case was opened after a body of a newborn boy had been found in one of the apartments in the Vniissok locality. Later, charges under article 127.1 of the Criminal Code were changed to graver ones, and the case was transferred to the central office of the Russian Investigative Committee. The suspects in the case were detained the day before and their places of residence were searched. They are accused 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, were held. Investigators believe the newborns were staying there while their biological parents, foreign citizens, were taking care of the necessary paperwork, including documents required to take the children outside Russia. 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 surrogate motherhood law firm.
Preliminary expert findings showed that the baby had died from the sudden infant death syndrome. All the relevant documents, including licenses and surrogate motherhood contracts, were subpoenaed from the law firm which specialized in surrogate motherhood programs. The three newborns found at the apartment were taken to the children’s city hospital.
Apart from that, checks were organized in local law enforcement and child protection agencies on charges of improper performance of duties.