26 stand trial in interprovincial baby-trafficking case

Twenty-six suspects in a baby-trafficking case stood trial from Wednesday to Friday in Zhejiang province, with some of them stating they were helping find good parents for vulnerable babies.

The suspects, including couples and a father and son, sold the infants in Zhejiang, Fujian and Yunnan provinces in the previous two years, prosecutors said.

The Cangnan County People's Court in Wenzhou did not announce a verdict.

One noticeable suspect - a 68-year-old retired obstetrician surnamed Li from a well-known hospital in Wenzhou - denied the charge of trafficking five infants, though she admitted participating in the transactions of three newborns.

"I don't perceive it as trafficking and I didn't get a penny from the deals. I regarded my behavior as a way to help people and save the babies as they were abandoned by their parents because they were unmarried or they had economic difficulties," Li said during the trial.

Lawyers said that Li, as a doctor, must clearly understand that a police report should be made any time a woman abandons her baby.

Clues began to surface when some people in Cangnan heard babies crying in a house, and suspected that the owner was not their father. Police captured nine people and saved the babies.

More suspects were captured afterward in Shanghai and the provinces of Hebei and Yunnan.

Some infants were resold in different provinces, with the price ranging from 10,000 yuan ($1,520) to 100,000 yuan, according to prosecutors.

The number of baby trafficking cases declined to 853 last year from 1,918 in 2012, as tougher penalties, including the death sentence, were introduced, statistics from the Supreme People's Court showed.