"I wanted to buy a house." Woman sentenced to 4 years in prison for trying to sell her 2-year-old child in Samarkand

“I wanted to buy a house.” Woman sentenced to 4 years for trying to sell 2-year-old child in Samarkand

A woman in Samarkand region who tried to sell her 2-year-old daughter for $5,000 was sentenced to 4 years in prison. “Daryo” reported this after reviewing court documents.

It turned out that M.Sh., born in 1999, met a young man living in Bulungur district in 2019 and had a close relationship. After four years of relationship, in December 2023, their daughter was born. In the meantime, the man went abroad and broke off relations with the woman. M.Sh., resigned to fate, raised the child as a single mother.

On March 5, 2026, an acquaintance named B. came to M.Sh. and during the conversation, he said that he had a sister who had been looking for a child for several years and asked her to give him her daughter. If she agreed to the offer, he said that they would give her money in return.

“I was tired of moving from one rental to another and wandering around. At that time, I was planning to buy a house. However, I needed money for this. Hearing B.'s unexpected offer, I was happy that I had an opportunity to achieve my goal and agreed. They said that they would give me $5,000 for my daughter. I would receive $3,000 the next day, and the remaining $2,000 after the child was registered in their name,” M.Sh. said in his testimony.

A day after the agreement, on March 6, an emergency operation was conducted by internal affairs officers in a parking lot near Registan Square in Samarkand. In it, M.Sh. was caught with material evidence while taking 3 thousand dollars and handing over his underage daughter to a conditional buyer.

During the investigation, it was found that M.Sh. was previously found guilty in 2024 under Article 131 of the Criminal Code and sentenced to 1 year, 11 months and 11 days of restriction of liberty. Although the court granted him a number of leniencies during the period from 2024 to 2026, he did not draw the appropriate conclusion from this and committed another crime.

M.Sh. partially confessed to his guilt, expressed sincere remorse for his actions and asked the court to grant leniency.

By the verdict of the Samarkand District Court for Criminal Cases, M.Sh. was found guilty under Article 135, Part 3, Clause “b” of the Criminal Code (human trafficking). Article 57 of the Criminal Code was applied to her and she was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison.

Also, part of the unserved sentence under the previous sentence was added to the new sentence, and a 4-year prison sentence was imposed to serve it uninterruptedly.

Earlier, it was reported that a woman in Surkhandarya region who tried to sell her 11-year-old son for 40 million soums due to financial difficulties was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison. In Termez district, a woman who tried to sell her four-day-old baby for $1,500 was sentenced to 6 years in prison.