Tbilisi court denies bail to Ukrainian woman who entered Georgia with 10 kids

Tbilisi City Court has denied bail to 37-year-old Ukrainian citizen Yulia Suslyak, who was charged with child trafficking in April after being found with 10 children, four of them being born in one and the same year.

The decision comes after experts in Georgia confirmed last week that four of the ten kids were Suslyak’s biological children, while the father of all the 10 children is her husband.

Suslyak’s lawyer told the media that the Prosecutor’s Office offered a plea bargain.

However, Suslyak’s husband Yuri denied  such an agreement when the defendant is permitted to plead guilty to a reduced charge.

The lawyer demanded the release of Yulia Suslyak on bail, as “there is no evidence confirming her fault.”

However, Suslyak’s pre-trial term has been expanded by 35 days as the prosecution demanded this after the refusal of the plea bargain.

All the 10 kids are now in Ukraine. Photo: 1TV.

Both Georgian and Ukrainian officials believe that there are “various obscurities” in the case, which must be studied, including the family goals and the fate of an 11th child, as the detainee entered Russia [from Ukraine, before coming to Georgia] with 11 children.

Suslyak, who came to Georgia with 10 children from Russia in April 2019, had plans to move to the country’s occupied Abkhazia region, where “her husband, the father of all the ten children, lives.”

The children appeared in hospital shortly after their arrival with food intoxication, when the Georgian police showed an interest in the issue, as four of the 10 children were born in 2017.

The fact sparked suspicion of human trafficking, with Suslyak stating that four were her own and her husband’s biological children, while six others were born via surrogation.

Experts in Georgia have confirmed that the parents of four children are really Suslyak and her husband, while the father of six others was Suslyak’s husband.

Suslyak’s lawyer told the media that the family has always wanted many children and as Yulia was unable to give birth after her fourth pregnancy they used surrogating to achieve the goal.

The US embassy in Georgia was also involved in the case as one of the 10 children was born in the United States.

The Georgian police also said that Suslyak entered Russia from Ukraine with 11 children, adding that they were looking for the kid.

It has been reported that the child died while in Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent a plane to Georgia on June 6 to return the 10 children to Ukraine.

They are now in Ukraine under the care of grandparents and specialists.