Greece: Another couple arrested for buying a Romani child

Greek Police have begun investigating yet another case of possible child trafficking. Yesterday police representatives informed the public that they had arrested a childless couple in Athens who allegedly purchased a Romani girl just a few months old for EUR 4 000.

According to Deutsche Presse-Agentur, a 48-year-old man and 53-year-old woman made an unsuccessful attempt to register the purchased child as their own and were to appear in court yesterday. The couple told the police that since they could not have their own children, they decided to acquire some offspring in this unconventional way.

The couple reportedly purchased the little girl, who is now eight months old, in March of this year. Investigators are doing their best to locate the girl's biological parents and whoever brokered the sale.

Greece is now paying exceptional attention to every charge of possible child abduction or trafficking because of the case of "blonde Maria", a child recently found by police in central Greece to be living with a Romani family. Because she did not resemble the people claiming to be her parents, the authorities ordered DNA tests.

Those tests proved that the couple raising her were not her biological parents. They have been charged with kidnapping and with falsifying documents because they succeeded in registering Maria as their child with authorities.

The Greek Romani couple claimed the girl's biological mother gave them the child because she was in desperate straits. International wire services reported yesterday that the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said a separate set of DNA tests had confirmed that the biological parents of Maria are in fact a Romani couple from Bulgaria, Atanas and Sasha Rusev.

The Rusev's oldest son told Bulgarian television station bTV that his parents received money in exchange for the girl who would be renamed Maria. Ms Rusev denies the allegations.