Prosecutors suspend activity of Russia adoption agency

Prosecutors suspend activity of Russia adoption agency

ROSTOV-ON-DON, February 16 (Itar-Tass) - The Rostov regional prosecutor’s office has passed a decision to suspend the operation of an agency that handled the adoption of a four-year boy from Taganrog’s s orphanage by an American family.

The American couple Jane and Timothy Cochran systematically beat the adopted boy Kuzma for his “reading prayers in the English language badly”.

Jane also threatened to mutilate the boy.

Authorities took him from the Cochran family on January 31 and turned him over to the Child Protection Service.

The boy is an invalid with an inborn arm amputation.

He is past danger at present, physicians said.

The region’s senior prosecutor Irina Cherkasova told Itar-Tass on Thursday that accuracy of the adoption agency’s accounts of the situation in the Cochran family caused doubt.

“Besides, we have not got so far an answer to our inquire about abuse of the child in this concrete situation. In this connection, the decision has been made to suspend the activity of this organisation,” Cherkasova said.

She did not name the agency, only saying that it was accredited on Russia’s territory.

Cherkasova stressed that a prosecutorial probe did not reveal violations of the adoption procedure by Russian guardianship and court authorities.

At the same time, it is necessary to upgrade the criteria of selection of potential adopter parents, she said.