A Cairo court on Thursday jailed two US couples of Egyptian origin for illegal child trafficking, sentencing them to two years behind bars. Iris Botros and her husband Luis Andraos, Suzanne Hagolf and her husband Medhat Metyas were sentenced to two years in jail for their role in "child trafficking for the purpose of adoption," the court said.
Each one was also fined 100,000 Egyptian pounds (around 18,150 dollars). The couples, all Christian, were trying to adopt children from a Christian orphanage that allegedly provided them with false documents that certified that the children were born to them.
Orphanage administrators Mariam Ragheb and Gamil Bekheet as well as gynaecologist George Saad, were sentenced to five years and also fined 100,000 Egyptian pounds each for "selling and facilitating the sale of two children, Alexander and Victoria," according to the verdict. The laws governing adoption in Egypt are murky. Although Islamic law in predominantly Muslim Egypt strictly forbids adoption in order to maintain bloodlines and avoid the possibility of incest, there is no written rule concerning the Christian minority. A lawyer for the couples said they planned to appeal the verdict.