Woman Denies Trying to Sell Baby for Dh8,500 Mary Nammour
4 March 2010, DUBAI — A woman cook denied in court on Wednesday that she had surreptitiously tried to sell another woman’s newborn baby boy to undercover police officers for Dh8,500 in October.
The 24-year-old Indonesian cook claimed before the Court of First Instance that she had only wanted to give away the baby for adoption with his biological mother’s consent. Denying that she asked for any money in exchange, she pleaded not guilty to the human trafficking charge against her that was read out by the presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir.
However, according to court records, the cook had initially offered the baby for Dh10,000 before settling for Dh8,500. She told the baby’s biological mother that the baby was being given away to an Emirati family for adoption.
An woman sergeant from the Anti-Organized Crime Department’s Human Trafficking Section told the prosecutors that on October 30 she had received a telephone call regarding the case. She added, “I was informed that the defendant was about to sell a newborn (baby boy) for Dh10,000. I was given her number.”