A WITNESS has told the Ndola magistrate court that four couples who attempted to traffic four children from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had them checked into a guest house they were living in two days later.

Estelle Banda, a General Manager at Spree guest house in Ndola narrated to the court that the eight Croatians who were booked at the guest house did not have children when they booked, but that two days later, staff at the guest house found them all with African black children.

This is a matter in which eight people of Croatian descent are charged with suspected human trafficking and were arrested from Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe Airport with children aged between one-year-six months and three years old.

When the matter came up for trial before chief resident Magistrate Dominic Makalicha, Ms Banda told court that after the four couples checked, it was discovered that each had a black child.

She told court that the couples stayed at the lodge for five days and when going to the Airport, they each had an African black child.

They actually only wanted one daughter, but then they ended up with two...The Herrmann family reports on the adoption of their two daughters from Romania.

First encounter at 50 degrees in the sun

Mother holding child hand iStock isitsharp

Photo: © iStockphoto.com/ isitsharp

"Aurelia hugged me right away and called me daddy," Peter Herrmann recalls when he first met his daughter. At that time it was more than 50 degrees hot under the blazing sun on the Black Sea. It was there that the Herrmann family met their adopted child for the first time . "Because time was short in Romania, we had to sign the declaration of consent for the adoption without having met Aurelia," says Aurelia's current father, Peter. "We had only seen a photo of her before."

Croatian adoptive parents arrested in Zambia have proof that the biological mothers gave up their children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jutarnji List daily said on Thursday.

The families of the eight Croatians arrested in Zambia on 7 December on suspicion of child trafficking are waiting to hear if the four couples will be remanded in custody or released on bail. A decision is expected to be made today by a criminal court judge in Ndola, Zambia.

The couples arranged with their lawyers to submit evidence that the children they adopted in the DRC met the requirements for adoption and that their biological mothers gave up parental care, the daily said, adding that the evidence has been gathered.

At a hearing earlier this week, a court-appointed defence attorney requested that the Croatian couples be released on bail, to which the state prosecutor objected, citing flight risk.

A ray of hope that the court could grant bail came from the prosecutor’s claim that in that case, the Croatian nationals must regulate their residence in Zambia for the duration of the trial, Jutarnji List said but added that, according to Zambian journalists, the chances for that are slim.

The court says there is no harm if the existing system of courts handling adoption cases continues till the next day of hearing, February 14, and rejects the argument that the amendment was required to avoid delays in the disposal of the adoption matters.

The Bombay High Court has directed the central and state government not to transfer pending adoption proceedings to district magistrates, as mandated under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2021, till the next hearing on a challenge to the Act’s provisions allowing the DMs to issue adoption orders.

The high court said that till the plea is disposed of, the courts currently having such matters on their record and file should continue with the proceedings. “The safer and more prudent course of action would be to allow all the matters to be placed before a single-judge bench of the high court which is assigned to hear such matters… Those orders may continue to be passed until the challenge is finally decided,” it said Tuesday.

The court also stayed the effect and implementation of a September 30, 2022, letter issued by the commissioner of the Women and Child Department asking all courts to transfer adoption cases to district magistrates.

A bench of Justices G S Patel and S G Dige passed the interim order on a writ petition filed by advocates Nisha Pandya and Pradeep Pandya, residents of Kandivli, that challenged the constitutional validity of the 2021 amendment. The petitioners claimed that because of the amendment, which replaced “court” with “District Magistrate”, the adoption procedure would be overseen by the DM, who is an executive officer. The procedure had since 2006 been entrusted to the judiciary, they said, claiming that the amendment was made without any logical reason.

Kiyoshi Yu, a 52-year-old man from Winthrop, Massachusetts, is accused of sexually assaulting one of the three boys he adopted last summer in Bogota, Colombia

A Massachusetts man is accused of sexually assaulting one of the three boys he adopted last year in Colombia.

The office of Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced Thursday that 52-year-old Kiyoshi Yu of Winthrop had been charged with assault and battery on a child under 14.

Prosecutors say Yu traveled last summer to Bogota to adopt three boys aged 8, 9 and 13.

"One of the boys told investigators that Yu repeatedly abused the boys in a Bogota hotel shortly after the adoption," the district attorney's office wrote in a news release. "The abuse continued when Yu returned with the boys to the United States."

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted interim stay on transfer of pending adoption matters to the District Magistrates and directed the courts to continue with adjudication in such cases.

The division bench of Justice G. S. Patel and Justice S. G. Dige also issued notice to the Attorney General for India in a writ petition challenging the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2021 to the extent that the word ‘Court’ is replaced with ‘District Magistrates’.

The court listed the petition for final disposal on February 14, 2023, at 2.30 pm.

“While considering interim relief, we must bear in mind the primary objective which is the interest of the children and infants who are to be adopted whether these are domestic or foreign adoptions. The concerns of the adoptive parents are also involved," the court said.

The court further said that if the petition succeeds, any orders passed by the District Magistrates will immediately become vulnerable.

The case of the Croatian couples accused of trafficking children from DR Congo became a hot topic in the Croatian media, but the Municipal Court in Zlatar, which has a bizarre verdict in its archives, also brought it into focus.

Mrs. Nataly Anderson was left without her children, who were kidnapped by her ex-husband, also a former SOA employee, Zvonimir Marinović.

This trauma of Ms. Nataly and her children shows how rotten and corrupt the Croatian judicial and social system is.

Mrs. Nataly's family lived in Donja Stubica, Nataly was an employee of HT who fed the family, while Mr. Marinović found himself in customs, demoted, due to political puzzles. (Karamarko case, leaking of documents, UDBA)

Eight (8) Croatian nationals have pleaded not guilty to the offence of attempted trafficking in four children of Congolese origin on the Zambian territory.

Appearing before Ndola Chief Resident Magistrate Dominic Makalicha on Tuesday morning, the four couples told the court that they understood the charge but were not guilty.

Particulars of the offence are that Damir Magic aged 44 and seven others on 7th December 2022 in Ndola on the Copperbelt Province jointly and whilst acting together did attempt to traffic a child namely Beatrice Magic within the territorial boundaries of Zambia for the purpose of exploitation.

The offence is contrary to section 3A (1) and 12 of Human Trafficking Act No.11 of 2008 as Amended by Act No.16 of 2022 of the laws of Zambia.

The Croatian suspects are Damir Magic aged 44, his wife Nadica Magic aged 45, Subosic Zoran aged 52, his wife Azra Imamovic Subosic aged 41, Ladislav Persic aged 42, his wife Aleksandr Persic aged 40, Noah Kraljevic aged 45 and his wife Ivona Kraljevic aged 36.

At the beginning of December, seven Croatian citizens were arrested in Zambia, due to doubts about the validity of the documents for the adoption of minor children from the DR Congo. The investigation is still ongoing, and the Croatian institutions are transferring responsibility for the adoption process, Croatian reports. Index.

The investigation involving several competent authorities will determine what really happened, whether someone forged Congolese documents or failed in the adoption process of Congolese children who received Croatian documents. Currently there are various theories about this and various information and misinformation is being spread.

On Wednesday, there was also a misunderstanding when the President of the Supreme Court of Croatia, Radovan Dobroni?, stated that the Croatian courts made a mistake and that the procedure on the basis of which Congolese children received Croatian documents was not valid, because Congo is a signatory to the Convention on the Protection of Children. therefore the procedure should be different.

But Dobronic later admitted that he had made a mistake and confused the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Namely, DR Congo is not a signatory to the Convention and the adoption procedure is under the jurisdiction of the courts, not the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.

He announced that the Supreme Court will rule on the adoption on Thursday.

Sam Bettens is a guest in 'Het Huis' this week. He tells Eric Goens about his two coming outs, but also about the very difficult adoption process.

We know Sam Bettens better as the frontman of K's Choice. The singer has been living in the United States for years with his wife Stef Kramer. The couple has four children. Two children from Stef's previous relationship and two adopted children: Jett and Charlie. Sam now tells in ' Het Huis ' that the adoption process was very tough.

“What was supposed to be the happiest day of our lives became the deepest thing there is,” he admits frankly. For example, Sam says that they had already fitted the child seat in the car and that they were about to leave the hospital. “The car seat comes out, with no baby, and then the door closes again,” says Sam.

Goens wonders if the mother changed her mind at the last minute, but that was not the reason. “The father refused to give the child to a lesbian couple,” explains Sam. “The father finally said: 'No way!'”

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