Seems no one gets a bargain like the Chinese.
A 22-year-old man from the central province of Hubeia, received a suspended jail sentence for selling his young son on the Internet for 18,000 yuan or $us2,650 dollars. Surely that is a bargain in any language.
The unmarried man sold his two-year-old son to a Beijing couple in April ’09 after advertising the child online, having recently split from the childs mother.
Apparently he decided he did not have the time or money to raise him. Common sense finally caught up with him, and he regretted the sale. After reuniting with the mother, he accused the Beijing couple of child trafficking and demanded the return of the boy. Police became involved when they refused to surrender custody.
His plan came unstuck with the Beijing court convicting him of abandoning his child. They gave him a six-month suspended sentence with one year of probation.
The Beijing couple were found not to have committed any wrongdoing as the father had admitted he lacked the means to raise the child and they were willing to raise it.
Judicial authorities ordered the child be returned to the 22 year old, and the 18,000 yuan was confiscated by the court.
I’m curious as to how he sold the child though. Did he use Ebay? If he did, what category would you sell a child under? Pets perhaps?
[AFP]
