Mashhad Mother Sells Newborn Baby to Pay Maternity Costs

Mashhad police have arrested two men and two women on charges of selling a newborn baby.

Hojat Nikkhah, Mashhad’s police commander, told the press that the mother, 20, intended to sell the baby to pay for hospital costs incurred during childbirth.

“She could not take the child home because they did not have the three million tomans ($900) to pay for hospital fees,” he said.

According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, an anonymous caller alerted the police. “They identified and arrested a young woman who had sold her 23-day-old child for three million tomans, and the middle-aged man who had bought the child.”

Nikkhah told reporters that they had also arrested a woman, 23, who had arranged the sale, acting as a go-between for the woman and the accused. “We arrested a second young man on extortion charges. He intended to bribe the man who had bought the child.”

The mother of the child had stated that her husband was in prison due to a street brawl, and had been given a fine of four million tomans. According to police reports, the couple were unable to settle this fine, or the hospital fees, and the woman felt she had no choice but to sell her newborn baby. 

Read the original article in Persian