Briton who spoke out over 'illegal' adoptions faces prison

A British man faces up to five years in a Guatemalan prison after accusing the former wife of a high-ranking judge of being involved in illegal international adoptions.

Bruce Harris, OBE, the executive director of Casa Alianza, a non-governmental organisation that campaigns for children's rights in Latin America, says his organisation has proof that Susana Saracho de Umana was one of a group of local lawyers who had built up a profitable business in international adoptions.

In 1997, Mr Harris singled out Ms Saracho de Umana at a press conference in Guatemala City and accused her of using improper influence with the judicial authorities to move her adoption cases forward more quickly.

Mr Harris has accused local adoption agents of tricking scores of pregnant women in Mexico and Guatemala into giving up their newborn babies. He claims that agents promised pregnant women free antenatal care and a place in hospital for the birth of their children. The majority of the women were illiterate and did not realise that contracts they accepted bound them to give up their babies, most of whom were destined for new homes in the United States and Europe.

"Some of them couldn't even sign their names. They just put their thumbprints," Mr Harris said from Costa Rica where he moved several years ago after receiving death threats related to his advocacy work.

"We may never know how many women were caught up in this scandal. Certainly scores, maybe hundreds.

"Two years ago, the adoption business in Guatemala was worth US$59m (£40m). That's more than major exports such as snowpeas or cauliflowers.

"The going rate for a baby is around US$20,000 or double that if it is brought in from a neighbouring country like Mexico or smuggled out to Costa Rica where it will get a false birth certificate so the adoptive parents may never even know where the child originally came from."

In 2002, the last year for which figures are available, almost 3,000 Guatemalan children were adopted abroad. Of those, 2,548 went to the United States, 238 to France and 15 to the UK. Several countries including Ireland and the Netherlands now operate a moratorium on adoptions from Guatemala following concerns over irregularities.

Mr Harris said: "People think we are against adoptions but this is not true. What we want is a transparent adoption process with DNA testing which will avoid heartache for parents, adoptive parents and the children who are just seen as commodities by greedy lawyers."

In spite of the fact that Casa Alianza was investigating illegal adoptions at the request of the country's Solicitor General, Ms Saracho sued for defamation.

In Guatemala, truth is no defence against a defamation claim. Amid allegations that Ms Saracho de Umana was using her influence to pursue her case against Mr Harris, the Constitutional Court - in an apparent misinterpretation of the law - ruled that only members of the media were entitled to freedom of expression.

Ms Saracho de Umana, whose former husband was president of the Supreme Court, is also asking for substantial damages.

She has never been charged in relation to her activities and is still working as an adoption lawyer in Guatemala City where her website offers to help "parents, professionals, and adoption advocates".

Today's hearing will be seen as a test case as it will be the first since the new government of centre-right president Oscar Berger took office last week.

Fred Shortlands, director of Casa Alianza UK, said: "We hope that the court will throw out the case as it has no legal basis."