Beatrice, the wife of Nigeria lawmaker Ike Ekweremadu, who is being detained in the UK with her husband, has been granted bail by a UK court.
However, the court declined to release her husband on bond.
A scheme to bring a man into the UK to be harvested for a kidney for their daughter is what led to the detention of Ekweremadu, a former deputy president of the senate.
According to the Daily Mail, the legislator and his wife attended a bail hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday.
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The Modern Slavery Act of 2015 accuses 55-year-old Beatrice of orchestrating or supporting the travel of another person with the intention of exploitation between August 1 and May 5, according to the report.
Common Serjeant of London, Richard Marks, was quoted as saying;
The position is that I have granted bail to Beatrice subject to some fairly stringent conditions, but I have refused bail to Ike.
The prosecution did not file an appeal against the court’s ruling.
Authorities had accused a doctor of conspiring with Senator Ekweremadu and Beatrice to traffic the alleged victim into the UK in order to remove his kidney for their daughter before the bail hearing.
According to the Daily Mail, the doctor, identified as Obinna Obeta of Southwark in south London, was charged under the Modern Slavery Act with organising the victim’s trip so that he might be exploited between last August and May.
Another Indictment On Conspiracy Charges
In a separate indictment, he was accused of conspiring with the couple to plan or aid the man’s travel with the intention of using him for organ harvesting.
After being detained following their arrest at Heathrow Airport on June 21 after landing on a trip from Turkey, Ekweremadu and his wife—who have subsequently denied any wrongdoing—arrived on a flight from Turkey.
The pair came before a judge in the UK, which ruled that they should remain in detention until July 7 while the charges against them were being looked into.
The donor, who according to the Met police was 15 years old, reportedly declined to give his assent to the treatment following testing at the Royal Free Hospital in north-west London’s Hampstead.
After establishing the kidney donor’s age to be 21, the Westminster Magistrates’ Court eventually decided that he was not a minor.
The trio of Ekweremadu, Beatrice, and Obeta are due to appear at the Old Bailey on August 4.
