BANGKOK, A Thai court on Tuesday sentenced seven defendants each to four years in prison for their involvement in a transnational surrogacy network.
They were arrested in February 2020 along with four others including a Chinese businessman, Ran Zhao, now 41 and his wife Su Ying Tin.
The seven defendants were denied the charges and were not granted bail since then.
The Criminal Court sentenced them to 4 years in prison for conspiracy and participation in an international criminal organization. Other charges were dropped.
As they had served their sentences more than four years in prison, they were released on Tuesday following the delivery of the verdict.
In September 2021, the Criminal Court sentenced Ran Zhao and three other accomplices each to 150 years in prison with a reduced sentence to 75 years, while the actual imprisonment according to the law was 50 years each.
They were found guilty of participating in a transnational organized crime, colluding to arrange pregnancies for commercial purposes, a
nd 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. These activities took place in Bangkok and other provinces.
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.
Source: Thai News Agency