A magistrates court in Ndola, Zambia is hearing charges of child trafficking against eight persons of Croatian origin.
They were named in court documents as Aleksandra Persic, 40, Azra Imamovic Subosic, 41, Ladislav Persic, 42, Damir Magic, 44, Nadica Magic, 45, Noah Kraljevic, 45, and Ivona Kraljevic, 46 and Zoran Subosic, 52.
The eight pleaded not guilty before magistrate David Makalichi in Ndola, Copperbelt province.
Legal aid lawyer, Kelvin Silwimba stand in their defence in a court session attended by Croatian officials.
In the charges brought before the court, the Croatians are accused of attempting to traffic four named children in 2022 into Zambia “for the purpose of exploitation.”
Croatian media had reported that the detained Croats were four couples and that they included Zoran Subosic, a guitarist for well-known band Hladno Pivo, or Cold Beer.
They said that the children had come from D R Congo and had been granted Croatian citizenship by courts in Croatia based on allegedly phoney documents.
Thereafter, Croatia’s Supreme Court issued a cautionary note to lower courts working on similar cases to check thoroughly any such documents where couples are seeking to adopt children.
The suspects left court after the brief hearing and boarded a bus to be returned to a detention facility.
The child trafficking case is expected to resume before the Ndola court, with another hearing on Thursday.