A court in Moscow sentenced up to 19.5 years in prison to fertility doctors accused in the case of “trafficking children” from surrogate mothers

The Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow sentenced four fertility doctors in the case of “trafficking of children” from surrogate mothers. This was reported by the correspondent of “Caution, News”.

The director of the European Center for Surrogacy, Vladislav Melnikov, and embryologist Taras Ashitkov were sentenced to 19.5 years and 17.5 years in a maximum security colony, respectively.

Reproductologist Yuliana Ivanova was sentenced to 16.5 years in prison, obstetrician-gynecologist Lilia Panaioti - to 16 years; they will serve their sentence in a general regime colony. As “Caution News” notes, at one of the meetings Vladislav Melnikov said that the services of his center were used, in particular, by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

The four defendants in the case were found guilty of human trafficking, which resulted in death by negligence (part 3 of Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code); they did not admit guilt. According to investigators, doctors “under the guise of infertility treatment” organized the sale of children born by surrogate mothers to foreigners. In 8 out of 11 cases, according to security officials, the transfer of children to foreign citizens was completed.

Surrogate mothers Tatyana Blinova and Liliya Valeeva also became accused in the case of human trafficking committed by an organized group; they were sentenced to 4 years and 10 years in a general regime colony, respectively. According to the court's decision, Blinova will serve her sentence after her daughter turns 14 years old.

The case was opened in 2020 after the body of a baby born in 2019 by a surrogate mother and who died of SIDS was discovered in the village of VNIISSOK near Moscow. The child carried for a Filipino couple had a congenital injury.

The deceased boy was in the apartment with three other children from a surrogate mother under the supervision of a nanny, the Investigative Committee reported. The department emphasized that the clients of the accused were foreigners who planned to take their children abroad.

Representatives of Rosyurconsulting helped to prepare documents for the children - in particular, the general director of the company Konstantin Svitnev, his deputy Roman Emashev and translator Kirill Anisimov. In addition to them, the courier Valentina Chernyshova appears in the case. Medical procedures were carried out by doctors from the Moscow private clinic “K+31 Petrovsky Gate”.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs put Svitnev on the wanted list, he left the country before the arrest of the defendants in the case. Anisimov was later sentenced to six years in a maximum security colony, Emashev and Chernysheva to five years in prison. They admitted guilt.