Baghdad court sentences two women to six years for selling newborn infant

BAGHDAD — The Karkh Criminal Court on Monday sentenced two women to six years in prison for human trafficking after one of them, identified as the mother, sold her newborn child for 8 million dinars ($5,163) in Baghdad.

The Supreme Judicial Council said the ruling was issued under Article 6 of the Anti-Human Trafficking Law No. 28 of 2012.

The case follows a series of similar convictions in recent months. In September 2025, the Rusafa Criminal Court sentenced four people, including a father, to 10 years in prison after the man sold his five-year-old daughter for 8 million dinars. That same month, the Karkh Criminal Court sentenced two women to seven years for trafficking, including a mother who sold her daughter for 20 million dinars ($14,020). Also in September, the National Security Service arrested three women in Diwaniyah accused of trafficking newborns, including an unlicensed midwife accused of selling infants. In February, a Baghdad man was sentenced to 10 years for selling his infant son after advertising him on social media, and in December 2024 police in Adhamiya arrested a man and a woman for allegedly selling two children for 4 million dinars ($2,638).