A Thai court on Tuesday handed down a 4-year prison sentence for seven convicts involved in a commercial surrogacy network.
Ran Zhao, a 41-year-old Chinese national, and 10 others were found guilty of participating in a transnational organized crime, colluding to arrange pregnancies for commercial purposes, and engaging in the buying, selling, importing, or exporting of eggs or embryos.
The convicts were Chinese businesspeople and Thai agents who hired Thai women for surrogacy, which was illegal.
The court sentenced them to 4 years in prison for conspiracy and participation in an international criminal organization. Other charges were dropped. As they have served their sentences more than four years in prison, they are scheduled to be released on March 19.
The police tracked the network which had provided illegal surrogacy service since 2012. They paid Thai women around 400,000-600,000 baht each to be surrogate mothers. These activities took place in Bangkok and other provinces. They were arrested in Bangkok in February 2020 but denied the charges and were not granted bail since then. (TNA)
