Report of sale of baby boy from orphanage follows breakup of baby trafficking ring in Vietnam
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Vietnamese police have arrested two women in Hanoi, accusing them of involvement in the alleged sale of a baby boy abandoned at a pagoda, local media reported.
Thanh Nien News said police arrested Nguyen Thanh Trang, who helped manage an orphanage at Bo De Pagoda, accusing her of selling the baby, who later died of measles, to Pham Thi Nguyet, for 35 million dong ($1,650).
Nguyet, who had been trying to adopt a child, was also arrested. Both women were charged with "trading in, fraudulently exchanging or appropriating children", local media said.
The boy was left in front of the pagoda in 2013 but disappeared from the orphanage earlier this year, Viet Nam News said.
The alarm was raised after a local philanthropist reported that the boy had gone missing from the pagoda without a satisfactory explanation of his whereabouts, Thanh Nien News said.
It reported that forensic tests were being undertaken to confirm the boy’s identity.
In March, Thanh Nien News reported that police had broken up a national baby trafficking ring which had sold at least 20 newborn babies for up to $1,650 each to dealers who resold them to infertile couples around Ho Chi Minh City and nearby provinces.
(Editing by Tim Pearce; timothy.pearce@thomsonreuters.com)
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