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Maltese jailed for trafficking Pakistani babies

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By Giselle Borg Olivier

A Maltese citizen, born in Pakistan, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment after being found guilty of kidnapping 11 Pakistani babies to be trafficked for adoption in Malta.

Dennis Charles and his wife Concetta, along with five other people were accused of child trafficking, including Dennis Charles’ brother Derrick.

In March 2002, Dennis Charles was arrested with six other people by Palestinian authorities, after a tip-off that they held 11 babies, aged between ten days and two months, to be trafficked illegally to Malta. The babies were found in Gulshan-I-Iqbal in Karachi, and were placed in care.

Four of the seven detainees were sentenced to seven years imprisonment for kidnapping and were fined $2,200 each by Judge Jawed Qaiser.

Dennis Charles said that he paid third parties various sums of money for them to get the children from different places in Pakistan, so that these could be illegally trafficked to Malta and sold to Maltese couples.

Childless couples in Malta paid up to Lm6,000 to the Charles’ after being promised a baby from Pakistan, however, they never saw the child or the money.

© Copyright 2006 - MaltaMedia Online Network

2006 May 24