Russian child-swap families win compensation
Source: Agencies |
November 1, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TWO Russian families yesterday won US$100,000 compensation each from a maternity home that accidentally switched their 12-year-old daughters at birth, and said they could use the money to house the girls next to each other.
The story has captivated Russia ever since the families learned about the switch after Yuliya Belyayeva's former husband refused to support their daughter, Irina, because she did not look like him. A DNA test revealed that neither of them was Irina's parent. An official investigation tracked down Irina's biological father, Naimat Iskanderov, who had been raising Belyayeva's own child, Anna.
Yulia laughed with joy after the judge delivered the verdict in a courtroom in Kopeisk in Russia's Ural Mountains, but Iskanderov remained stone-faced.
In footage broadcast on Russian television, Belyayeva caressed her biological daughter, Anna, while Irina, whom she raised, sat stern-faced on a sofa, here eyes down. "She feels jealous," Belyayeva said.
It was not clear whether Bely-ayeva had remarried after separating from her husband. Iskanderov parted with his wife when Anna was five but later married again, according to a local newspaper.
Anna strongly resembled her biological mother, Belyayeva, while dark-haired and dark-eyed Irina looked like her ethnic Tajik father, Iskanderov.
Despite the verdict, Belyayeva said she will still struggle to overcome the feeling of shock over the inadvertent swap.
Russian television reports said the girls do not want to leave the parents who raised them, so the families are thinking of using the compensation money to get houses close to each other or even share a home.
The story has captivated Russia ever since the families learned about the switch after Yuliya Belyayeva's former husband refused to support their daughter, Irina, because she did not look like him. A DNA test revealed that neither of them was Irina's parent. An official investigation tracked down Irina's biological father, Naimat Iskanderov, who had been raising Belyayeva's own child, Anna.
Yulia laughed with joy after the judge delivered the verdict in a courtroom in Kopeisk in Russia's Ural Mountains, but Iskanderov remained stone-faced.
In footage broadcast on Russian television, Belyayeva caressed her biological daughter, Anna, while Irina, whom she raised, sat stern-faced on a sofa, here eyes down. "She feels jealous," Belyayeva said.
It was not clear whether Bely-ayeva had remarried after separating from her husband. Iskanderov parted with his wife when Anna was five but later married again, according to a local newspaper.
Anna strongly resembled her biological mother, Belyayeva, while dark-haired and dark-eyed Irina looked like her ethnic Tajik father, Iskanderov.
Despite the verdict, Belyayeva said she will still struggle to overcome the feeling of shock over the inadvertent swap.
Russian television reports said the girls do not want to leave the parents who raised them, so the families are thinking of using the compensation money to get houses close to each other or even share a home.
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