AKIPRESS.COM - Two Central Asian women have been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail each in the Russian city of St. Petersburg for attempting to sell a baby, reports RFE/RL.

The Russian Investigative Committee said on December 2 that a woman from Uzbekistan, aged 24, delivered a boy in March and along with a woman from Tajikistan, 31, sold the newborn baby for 25,000 rubles ($735) to an undercover police officer.

In May, police in the southwestern Russian city of Volgograd arrested an Uzbek couple attempting to sell their newborn daughter.

And in April, Moscow regional police arrested another Uzbek couple for attempting to sell their 18-month-old son and a newborn daughter for 1 million rubles ($28,900).