A worker at an accommodation establishment and an airport immigration officer were heard by a high court in the Zambian city of Ndola on Thursday as part of the trial of eight Croatian nationals charged with attempted child trafficking, a diplomatic source confirmed to Hina.

The trial opened on Wednesday with a hearing of an immigration officer from a border crossing between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia and a receptionist from the hotel where the Croatians were staying.

The two witnesses that were heard on Thursday had been previously heard by a lower court.

The next hearing, initially scheduled for Friday, was set for next week. “Tomorrow’s hearing was cancelled because of the unavailability of a prosecution witness, and the next one was set for Tuesday,” the source said.

Four Croatian couples travelled to Zambia late last year to collect the children from DR Congo, aged 1-3, for whom Croatian courts had confirmed adoption papers and the Ministry of the Interior had issued the necessary documents. The eight Croats were arrested at Ndola Airport on 7 December 2022 before their departure from Zambia on suspicion of document forgery and child trafficking.

They had spent nearly seven weeks in prison in Zambia before they were released on bail on 23 January. On 6 February, the judge ended the trial and gave the Croatians 48 hours to leave the country, but the next day the couples were sent back to prison because the indictment against them was expanded. Shortly afterwards, they were again released on bail and the trial was moved to the high court.