MOSCOW, November 5 (RAPSI) – One of the defendants in a case over trafficking of surrogate mothers’ children Konstantin Svitnev has been put on the international wanted list.

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow would hear an investigators’ motion to arrest him in absentia, the court’s press service told RAPSI on Thursday.

The man stands charged with human trafficking.

In July, the court detained CEO of the European Surrogacy Center Vladislav Melnikov as part of the case.

In total, seven defendants are in detention. One more accused woman is under house arrest.

In January, law enforcement found a body of a dead newborn boy in a flat in the Moscow Region’s town of Odintsovo. There were also three other kids there along with a nurse. Investigators believe surrogate mothers gave birth to the children to transfer them later to foreign parents.

However, defense lawyers believe that investigators failed to discover cause-effect links between actions’ of the doctors and the baby’s death. Moreover, they state that current legislation does not prohibit citizens to become parents using vitro fertilization and surrogate services.