Suspects in illegal adoptions case conclude testimony; four remanded in custody

The marathon session before the magistrates had started at 8:00 on Sunday morning and ended at 3:00 in the early hours of Monday.

Four of the eight suspects in an illegal adoptions and baby trafficking case were remanded in custody early on Monday after testifying before two examining magistrates who are handling the case in Chania, Crete. The marathon session before the magistrates had started at 8:00 on Sunday morning and ended at 3:00 in the early hours of Monday.

A doctor who owned the assisted reproduction unit, an embryologist employed there, the unit’s secretary and a Romanian woman acting as an intermediary for arranging the illegal adoptions were jailed on remand.

The unit’s midwife, a biologist, a worker at a Chania clinic and a foreign national also accused of acting as an intermediary for the adoptions were released with conditions.

The eight led before the authorities are accused of forming and joining a criminal organisation to traffic in people, acting as intermediaries in the illegal adoption of minors, violating laws on medically assisted reproduction, forgery, disrupting family order, fraud, bodily harm and violating legislation on narcotics.