The Moscow City Court upheld the decision to arrest two more defendants in the criminal case on trafficking in children from surrogate mothers in the Moscow region. This was announced to TASS by the lawyer of the accused Igor Trunov on Wednesday, August 5.
“The Moscow City Court upheld the decision of the Basmanny District Court on the selection of a preventive measure against Valentina Chernyshova and Yulianna Ivanova,” said the defense lawyer.
Last time, the consideration of complaints was postponed due to the fact that after the fire in the Pechatniki pre-trial detention center, the specialists did not restore video communication.
According to the agency, earlier the Moscow City Court upheld the decision of the Basmanny Court of Moscow on the arrest in this case of the urologist of the private clinic NGC Artur Ashitkov and the doctor Kirill Anisimov.
The appeal against the arrest of gynecologist Lilia Panaioti will be considered in the near future.
Also under arrest is a doctor who at the time of the crime worked in a private Moscow clinic K + 31 – embryologist Taras Ashitkov.
According to Trunov, the surrogate mothers who were under the supervision of the defendants in the child trafficking case are asking for help with future newborns. The defender noted that one of the surrogate mothers stated that the parents of the child she is carrying are in China, but now the borders are closed, and she will soon give birth.
The lawyer added that one of the surrogate mothers also said that all accounts in the criminal case were frozen and she did not know how the remuneration would be paid and what to do with the baby who was born.
In January 2020, the body of a baby was found in an apartment in Odintsovo near Moscow. The child was born with a congenital pathology, and the mother gave it to a surrogacy firm. The baby was not provided with medical assistance and as a result he died. In addition to him, there were three more newborns in the makeshift shelter.
Criminal cases were initiated under the articles “Causing death by negligence” and “Human trafficking”. As part of the investigation of the case, eight people were detained – doctors of private medical centers and employees of commercial organizations. The head of the Rosjurconsulting company involved in the case, Konstantin Svitnev, is in London.
According to media reports, another defendant in the case, Irina Kogut, is hiding from the investigation in Ukraine. According to the investigation, the woman was twice a surrogate mother – in December 2014, when she gave birth to a girl, and in October 2016, when she gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl. Investigators believe that she knew about the criminal component of the scheme organized by Rosjurconsulting, therefore, she is considered an accomplice in the crime.