Woman denies illegal adoption and child-trafficking

A 47-year-old woman on Wednesday denied charges of child trafficking and illegal adoption relating to the alleged sale of a baby from the Philippines to a same-sex couple.

The woman, a Philippine national, admitted 17 other charges relating to perjury, forgery, circulating a forged document, and drafting a document under false pretences.

She was arrested in January after suspicions were raised that two men in a same-sex partnership had illegally adopted a baby brought to Cyprus by a woman from the Philippines.

The authorities told the court at the time that she had given a false statement saying she was the mother of an infant born in July 2017 in the Philippines and had presented a fake birth certificate saying she was the mother of the child and a Cypriot man the father.

Police also said she had admitted to buying the baby in the Philippines and bringing it to Cyprus last October to be illegally adopted and that the documents she had presented to the Cypriot authorities were fake.

On Wednesday she denied the two most serious charges, conspiracy to commit felony – child trafficking – which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail, and illegal adoption.

The court adjourned until June 6. The woman will remain in custody until then.

Police are still seeking the two men who allegedly adopted the child.

The couple, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish national, were believed to have fled to Turkey with the baby, after authorities detained the woman.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.