FOUR BABIES AND A CHILD RESCUED, SEVEN MORE ARRESTED:MALAYSIA

SUBANG JAYA (Malaysia), Dec 23 (Bernama) -- Following up on the arrest of 13
people, including the head of a syndicate selling babies recently, police
arrested seven more persons and saved four babies and a child.

Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the seven - five
Indonesians and two local women - were arrested in three separate raids.

"Those arrested were an Indonesian male, four Indonesian females and two
local women who were arrested from Dec 15-20," he told reporters after the
launch of the Puchong Perdana police beat base here.

He said the two local women were leaders in the syndicate while the four
Indonesian females were paid to bear the babies for sale.

"All are aged between 22 and 36 years and were arrested in the Klang Valley
including Kajang, Klang dan Banting," Khalid said.

"The four babies and the child aged between three months and three years
were rescued after the buyers came forward to surrender them to police," he
said.

Khalid said the children were with the Social Welfare Department here.
"Police investigaton also found that the children had birth documents that
bore the names of the couples who bought the children as the biological
parents," he said.

Khalid did not discount the possibility of more arrests in relation to the
case.

He declined comment when asked about the denial by the maternity hospital in
Jalan Pasar, Klang, which was linked to the baby-selling syndicate,

Recently, the police busted a baby-selling syndicate that operated in
Selangor for the last five years when they arrested 13 people and rescued five
babies and a female child in two raids in the state.

The five babies, including an aboriginal peoples' (Orang Asli) baby, who
were rescued in raids in Banting on Dec 4 and Klang on Dec 11 were aged between
two weeks and nine months while the child was three years old.

-- BERNAMA