7 surrogate babies for the year: the story of a Ukrainian family accused of selling their children to organs
'26.05.2019'
Source: TSN
A Ukrainian woman in Georgia is accused of trafficking in children - she has been under arrest in Tbilisi for almost a month. A mother with many children tried to leave for Abkhazia, occupied by Russia, with 10 children, but the Georgian border guards did not let her in, because they thought it suspicious that 7 of these children were born within one year and from various surrogate mothers.
Georgian investigators claim that the arrested Ukrainian Yulia Suslyak is a participant in a criminal scheme to sell children for organs. As one of the evidence, a video was used in which Yulia walks along the corridor of the hospital, a small child runs after her and falls. She stops for a few seconds, says something and moves on, tells TSN.
Julia's story does not fit into the imagination of an ordinary person. A wealthy family that wanted to have many children and did everything for this purpose. The woman gave birth to four children herself, seven were carried by surrogate mothers. Together with the children, they move from country to country, rent expensive houses, and babysitters help take care of the children. But for some reason a mother with many children flies to Georgia alone with her children, half of whom are not even two years old. Finally, she is accused of selling babies.
The Suslyak family has many home video recordings of a happy married life. In Khmelnytsky, almost everyone knows this family. The husband is a well-known business developer. Yuri is 44, and Julia is 37 years old. They met 20 years ago and he immediately warned her - he wants a big family, very big.
“He said - I will have 20 children,” - said Yuri's mother.
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The businessman's mother lives herself in the village of Yarmolintsy, in the suburbs of Khmelnitsky. In the house in which Yuri was born and raised, he is still registered. As TSN found out, the famous developer never had his own house. The mother says that her only son was often ill from childhood, lived in sanatoriums for six months? and it was then that he had a dream - to have many children.
“They didn't have children for a long time - they didn't have 8 or 10 years. And then the first girl Nastya appeared. Then the boy and girl were still born. And their age. Then they took surrogate mothers. It was a little wild, but whatever he wants, so be it, the more there is such an opportunity, ”says the mother.
After the birth of three children, all Yulia's subsequent pregnancies were prematurely terminated. After a year and a half of unsuccessful attempts, the husband himself offered to use the services of surrogate mothers. Everything was formalized in Kiev: doctors' conclusions about infertility, an agency that looks for women and signs contracts with them, and artificial insemination. The kids of the Suslyak family were carried by seven women at once. Why are there so many - both the doctors and the family themselves explain: during fertilization, 7 embryos turned out at once? and the family gave each of them a chance. After all, no one gave guarantees that all seven would be born. And they were born. During the year, all seven.
Nastya, Aristarkh, Sofia - Julia herself gave birth to them in Khmelnytsky. Aurora, Yan, Veta, Yulia, Namaste, Emil and Savva were born in Kiev from surrogate mothers in 2017 and 2018.
It was at this time that the family started having problems with the business. Yuri gives his share to the partners, in the press he is accused of fraud and unfinished objects, deceived investors protest. But they do not open a single case against Yuri. And, as he himself says, he simply had to move to Russia.
In Moscow, the family removes a large estate. And in it, according to mother Yury, there was a big tragedy. Babies bathed in the bathroom, nine-month Sawa slipped and choked with water. They could not save him. Georgian investigators in this version of the death of a child do not believe. They were given a death certificate, a photo of the grave, and they insist that the boy was the first person the couple had already sold to the organs.
“So let them do the exhumation and let them look. There is a grave and that's it, I was at the funeral, ”the businessman's mother is indignant.
Nobody believed that one more - the eleventh child would be born in the family. When Savva died, Julia was eight months pregnant. After being diagnosed with infertility, the doctors called it a miracle. After all, the woman became pregnant almost at the same time as the surrogate mothers who were still carrying her children.
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Give birth to little Gres Julia and her husband went to Miami. Their plans subsequently were to move to the United States with the whole family forever. But here, too, the Georgian investigators are sure that they did not give birth to this child, but bought it in America and want to sell it in Abkhazia. Videos and photographs are not proof for them - they say that the belly is an invoice.
Julia's mother lives in Khmelnitsky and has been working as a music teacher for over 30 years. Irina, like her matchmaker, often helped take care of children in Ukraine. He calls the arrest of his daughter in Georgia and charges of child trafficking horror. She admits that the situation when seven children are born in one family in one year is strange. But this is how the circumstances developed - the family just went to their goal.
“Why in one year, because she is already 37, and she needs to raise children. Who will raise them? These are the dearest children. How it is - brought up for sale - it's awful, these are children! All DNA tests will show, ”says Yulia's mother.
The family lived in Russia for about a year, violated the migration regime and had to leave. We chose Sukhumi in Abkhazia, where my father has a friend. The first to go was Yuri from Sochi, and thus violated the Georgian law on the occupied territories. For this he faces 4 years in prison. And Julia and her children chose the legal route - they flew from Moscow to Tbilisi on April 8. Then we went to Zugdidi, which is not far from the border with Abkhazia. According to the family's plan, the paperwork was to take a day or two. The procedure lasted as much as ten. And already at the border, with all permits to leave, Yulia was interrogated for 9 hours. All this time, the children were without their mother in a rented minibus. In the end, they were not allowed into the occupied territory.
“My wife was told that these were not your children. That is, it was about the fact that this woman was selling children, ”said Yuri TSN via video link from Abkhazia.
At night, the kids became ill - all ten were poisoned while they were waiting for their mother at the border, and ended up in a hospital in Kutaisi. It was from there that the video, which the Georgian investigators accepted as evidence in the case, where a child is crying at the feet of the mother. Yuri says his wife went here to the other children after another interrogation. On the morning of April 25, she was arrested.
“The child went into hysterics, Yulia was heading for other children. If you react to every tantrum when a child falls to the floor, then it will be an endless tantrum. She went into the room and asked the nurse to leave. It's like a bad dream. Like a horror movie that takes place in reality. We were charged, namely my wife, that we bought all our 11 children. That is, we bought our eldest daughter 11 years ago, 6 years ago we bought our eldest son, 4,5 years ago we bought Sofia, our third child, and then we bought and bought ... ”, - says Yuri.
The family was allegedly taking ten children at once for sale to the “republic” of Abkhazia occupied by Russia. The mother was arrested. The father is afraid to cross the border with Georgia. Their grandmother is urgently flying out of Ukraine.
In order to free his wife, Yuri records a video on the border between Georgia and Abkhazia, in which he demands the surrender of his biological material in neutral territory in order to prove that all children are native.
Yury associates his wife’s arrest with his construction business left in Ukraine. He was a famous developer in Khmelnitsky. But three years ago he left for Russia. He is credited with unfinished business in Kharkov and Odessa and the appropriation of funds of investors. He himself denies everything. He says business has given to partners, is not hiding, is not wanted, and there is no criminal proceedings against him.
“I'm not bankrupt. Never been a millionaire. I've been in Africa for the last two years. He had a business, was waiting for his wife in Abkhazia, found a house and a nanny, ”says Yuri.
The Georgian prosecutor's office calls his wife Yulia a probable member of a criminal gang that sells children. There are even witnesses who say that while the woman was in Georgia, she was poorly caring for children.
"I was scared. The woman probably brought the food on the third day - buckwheat, and fed everyone with one spoon, ”says the owner of a family hotel in the village. Anaklia Mimosa Antia.
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“The children were tense, the emotional background was heavy,” says lawyer of the social services agency Natia Tsivtsivadze.
When asked why one family needs seven children born in one year from various surrogate mothers, Yuri Suslyak says: it was his dream - to have a large family. Themselves were able to give birth to four children, and spent almost $ 300 on the rest. That is how much the surrogate program cost a businessman.
In Kiev, TSN found an agency that helped Surus mothers to find Suslyam, as well as one of seven women who gave birth to their child. She says she has seen this rich family several times in her life.
“They came, signed the contract, handed over the biomaterial. They pay their money, ”says the woman.
For the disclosure of information, a surrogate mother faces a fine. Therefore, she is laconic. She confirms that while she was carrying the baby, Suslyak was paid $ 300 a month, and after giving birth, she received $ 17. I have already spent the money - I bought land near Kiev.
The search for one surrogate mother, fertilization, gestation and the birth of one baby cost the Suslyak family 40 00 dollars, they say in the agency. The fact that the family wanted seven children for a year does not see anything suspicious here.
“There are couples who take two surrogate mothers at the same time. If you have money, why not? ”, - said the agency.
The version of the Georgian investigators that the children were born for sale here is called absurd.
“Why hasn't she done anything with them in two years? All the children are with her. There are documents that are signed by the clinic, agency and surrogate mother. This child is long-awaited, he may not be one, there may be 5, 10, 15. We have no law that would prohibit or regulate how many children a woman should have, ”the agency explains.
The Suslyak family has ten children left, and now they have been separated from their parents. After the arrest, the mothers of the children were divided into two foster Georgian families. For the first time in two weeks, investigators allowed the children to see their grandmother, who flew to Georgia from Khmelnitsky.
“The elders cried a lot - Nastya, Arishik. They are not allowed to communicate with children. I wanted my son to speak on the phone - they forbade me. They are not told anything, only - mom will come. I said: dad, mom love you, ”says Yuri's mother.
Emma Suslyak passed the samples for DNA analysis and hoped that she would give the children. She returned home by herself. Her son hired lawyers, and they say that the case is delayed by the investigators, because they refuse to conduct a quick genetic examination of the relationship of the children to their parents.
Ukrainian law enforcement agencies refuse any comment, and only the Foreign Ministry speaks common phrases.
“We have a fairly powerful, solid contractual legal base between Ukraine and Georgia. Investigative actions are underway, and there may be a conclusion that she is innocent, or vice versa, ”the diplomats say.
Mother of many children in Georgia under arrest until June 20 - The Georgian side postpones the consideration of the appeal of the lawyers hired by her husband. It is not known when the results of the genetic examination will be. Samples were taken from the arrested mother, children and grandmother. But my father did not manage to transfer his biomaterials at the Georgian border. He returns to Abkhazia with nothing.
He says that in three weeks he only received from Ukraine a certificate stating that his wife was not convicted, he was not wanted, and no criminal cases were brought against her at home.
