Child traffickers given jail terms
The People's Court of Long Bien District in Hanoi on September 9 handed down jail terms to two defendants in a child trafficking case that was uncovered at Bo De Pagoda last year.
Pham Thi Nguyet, 45, from Ninh Binh City, was given four years in jail for child trafficking, and Nguyen Thi Thanh Trang, 36, from Hanoi, got 3 and a half years for the same crime.
Police officers launched an investigation in July last year after receiving a letter from a Hanoi resident, Nguyen Thanh Long, who said his godson had been sold from the pagoda.
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| Pham Thi Nguyet (L), 45, from Ninh Binh City, was given four years in jail for child trafficking, and Nguyen Thi Thanh Trang (R), 36, from Hanoi, got 3 and a half years for the same crime. — Photo infonet.vn |
Long said in the letter that the baby boy had been sold after being left in front of the pagoda by his parents.
Trang, who worked as a nursemaid at the pagoda, sold the baby to Nguyet for VND35 million (US$1,645) in January 2014, according to investigators.
The baby died of measles during his stay with Nguyet in June, 2014. During their search of Nguyet's home, police also found two other children whose mothers had given their consent to Nguyet adopting them, so no further charges were filed.
The court said the two defendants, who confessed to child trafficking, needed to be strictly punished.