South Africa to Congo Trafficking for Adoption

“Three suspected child traffickers will go on trial for kidnapping in October after they were denied bail by the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Shaheed Hassen, Zaida Hardien and Yota Madeleine Yuma were arrested earlier in September after two children went missing from a shelter in Booysens, Johannesburg.

Hassen and Hardien allegedly tried to sell the two children to Yuma, who had flown in from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The couple face charges of kidnapping a pair of five and six-year-old children in July.

Employees at the shelter have told Eyewitness News the couple had volunteered there before, and that they were shocked when they allegedly abducted the children.

Hassen and Hardien told staff at the shelter they were taking the children to a birthday party, but when they were not returned.

An e-mail campaign to find the children began.

The children were recovered at a home in eastern Johannesburg where they were allegedly set to be sold for R80,000 each.[approx. $9,700]
In her bail application, Yuma said Hardien had misrepresented herself as a social worker and that she had no idea the adoption was illegal.”

Suspected child traffickers denied bail

[Eyewitness News 9/21/12 by Shain Germaner ]
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