Lusaka – A Zambian judge acquitted four Croatian couples on Thursday who had been held for nearly six months on child trafficking charges.
The eight were arrested in early December while trying to leave Zambia along with four children they had brought from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
They said they had legally adopted the children, who all had Croatian papers.
The case sparked a fierce debate in the Balkan nation on the ethics of adopting from poor and troubled countries.
“The prosecution has failed to make out sufficient evidence” against the eight, judge Mary Mulanda told the court in Ndola, north of the Zambian capital Lusaka.
“I, therefore, acquit them,” she said.
A senior Zambian immigration official charged along with the group was also acquitted.
The eight and the children will travel to Croatia as soon as possible, a Croatian minister in Zagreb said.
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The Croatians did not speak to journalists but shed tears of joy as they celebrated their acquittal, according to an AFP reporter in court.
After initially being released on bail in January, the Croatians were rearrested for a second time.
The four children were taken away from them in December and handed over to Zambian social services, according to Zagreb.
Neither Croatian diplomats nor their adoptive parents were allowed to visit the children.
The trafficking charges set off a heated row in Croatia — where potential adopters vastly outnumber the children available — with the couples accused of trying to “buy children”.
Parents who had already adopted from the DRC said they had been stigmatised by the social media storm the case unleashed.
DRC officials say it has been illegal for foreigners to adopt there since 2017, but that has not stopped many children leaving the conflict-ridden country.
Around 100 have been adopted by Croatians over the last decade.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Twitter/@AdvoBarryRoux
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