Baby sellers found guilty (09/14/97)

Baby sellers found guilty

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Four men charged with involvement in the illegal sale of newborn babies to foreigners have been found guilty in Ivano-Frankivsk, but will spend little additional time in prison.

The four men, Volodymyr Doroshenko, chief physician of the Lviv Regional Prenatal Center, Yuri Zyma, former deputy chief of the Lviv City Administration; Bohdan Fedak, former chief physician of the Lviv Oblast Clinical Hospital; and Zinoviy Ursul, Halych Raion chief administrator; were found guilty of criminal negligence and abuse of office, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

The charges stemmed from their involvement in the sale of babies to foreigners, including U.S. citizens. The babies involved had been placed in orphanages because their mothers were serving prison sentences. The imprisoned mothers were told their babies had died.

Although all four convicted men were sentenced to prison, they will serve little time there, if any. Dr. Doroshenko was sentenced to four years, Mr. Zyma to three years, Dr. Fedak and Mr. Ursul to two years each. But Drs. Doroshenko and Fedak have been included in a general amnesty granted by President Leonid Kuchma during celebrations of the first anniversary of Ukraine's Constitution, while the sentences of Messrs. Zyma and Ursul have been deferred for two years.

However, Dr. Doroshenko effectively served nine months because he was detained for the entire period of the trial, which began on December 24, 1996. Dr. Fedak, Mr. Zyma and Mr. Ursul were released on bail and personal recognizance during the course of the trial.

The men also are prohibited from holding senior governmental or medical positions for a period of three years.

The discovery of an illegal baby adoption ring working in western Ukraine led the Verkhovna Rada in July 1994 to ban adoptions by foreigners, which lasted until July of 1996. Then the legislature amended the Civil Procedure Code and the Marriage and Family Code to tighten the adoption process. The Verkhovna Rada's Human Rights Committee has reported that during the two-year moratorium more than 800 illegal adoptions took place - 130 in the Lviv Oblast.

Today 5,400 children are registered at the Education Ministry's Children's Adoption Center, said Interfax-Ukraine. Some 300 foreign families are currently in the process of adopting Ukrainian children.

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