Tags
A South African mother who tried to sell her 19-month-old baby boy on the Internet for $340 was given a five-year suspended sentence, a justice official said on Thursday.
The 20-year-old mother will not spend time in jail, but will live under house arrest for three years.
The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, put the baby up for sale for 5,000 rand in an advertisement on the Gumtree website last year.
A member of the public alerted the police who arrested her in an undercover operation in October.
"She was given a wholly-suspended sentence of five years," National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman Natasha Ramkisson-Kara told AFP.
She will "undergo correctional supervision, which means basically house arrest for a period of three years," Ramkisson-Kara added.
The mother said she had tried selling her baby after her boyfriend stopped paying childcare following paternity tests that showed he was not the child's father.
Human trafficking carries a maximum life jail term or a fine of 100mn rand ($6.7mn).
But the court sitting in the eastern city of Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday handed down a lighter sentence after considering the woman's circumstances.
"The magistrate found that the woman did not have intention per se to traffick the child," said Ramkisson-Kara.
There are no comments.
SPORT Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when you are saying farewell to those that have left a positive impression. That was the case earlier this month when Canada hosted Mexico in a friendly at BC Place stadium in Vancouver.
TECHNOLOGY Some 60mn primary-school-age children have no access to formal education
CULTURE Lekhwiya’s El Arabi scores the equaliser after Tresor is sent off; Tabata, al-Harazi score for QSL champions
ARABIA The Yemeni Minister of Tourism, Dr Mohamed Abdul Majid Qubati, yesterday expressed hope that the 48-hour ceasefire in Yemen declared by the Command of Coalition Forces on Saturday will be maintained in order to lift the siege imposed on Taz City and ease the entry of humanitarian aid to the besieged
ARABIA Some 200 teachers from schools across the country attended Qatar Museum’s (QM) first ever Teachers Council at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) yesterday.
ARABIA The Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) of Qatar and the Indonesian Supreme Court (SCI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on judicial co-operation, it was announced yesterday.
ECONOMY Sri Lanka is keen on importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar as part of government policy to shift to clean energy, Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Rauff Hakeem has said.
