Mother tries to sell newborn baby for Dh10,000 in UAE

Abu Dhabi - The woman had run away from her employer

A mother who was convicted of trying to sell her two-month-old baby for Dh10,000 because she couldn't afford to take care of the child is fighting her three-year-jail sentence.
Official court records stated that the Sri Lankan woman who had run away from her employer and had got pregnant through an illicit relationship, cooperated with three other persons, also charged in the case to sell her baby girl at Dh10,000.
Prosecutors said police arrested the mother and her accomplices through a trap using an undercover officer after the force was notified that she was selling her baby.
The undercover police officer had contacted the woman's agent, one of the defendants and told her she was interested in buying the baby.
"The woman came to meet her at an Abu Dhabi hotel where police arrested them after the police undercover agent handed them Dh10,000 in exchange for the baby," said a prosecutor.
The Sri Lankan had confessed to cops during interrogation that she wanted to sell her baby because the man who made her pregnant had left the country and that she couldn't afford looking after the girl by her own.
The second defendant, also a housemaid from Sri Lanka, and had helped the mother to find the buyer said to the police that she had met the woman in a prayer place while she was pregnant.
"And when she had labour pains, she called me for help," she said.
"I went to her house and helped her deliver the baby. I had earlier worked as a nurse in my home country and I knew what to do."
The woman said to prosecutors that after two months, the Sri Lankan mother phoned her again and told her she couldn't afford raising the baby as it was too expensive for her.
She said she contacted her countryman in Abu Dhabi and told him about a mother who couldn't afford looking after her child and he said they should bring the baby to him.
The woman said her neighbour transported them to Abu Dhabi to meet someone who wanted to foster her. But when they reached at a hotel, they instead found another woman who offered to give them Dh10,000 for the baby.
She told prosecutors she shared the cash with the child's mother for mediating the deal.
Prosecutors had charged the two women, a driver and another man with human trafficking but all denied the charges.
Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance gave the mother and two of her accomplices three years in jail to be followed by deportation but they challenged the ruling.
The child's mother on Wednesday told the Appeal Court that she never tried to sell her baby and was only looking for foster parents to take care of the baby.
The trial was adjourned until March 29.
ismail@khaleejtimes.com