Lawyer for
Mitsutoki Shigeta, 24, says the businessman simply wants a large family and has
the means to support it
Thai police display pictures of the surrogate babies during a press conference at the police headquarters in Chonburi, Thailand. Photograph: Sakchai Lalit/AP |
Interpol
has launched an investigation into an alleged "baby factory" after it
emerged that a Japanese businessman had fathered 16 surrogate children and
expressed a desire for many more.
Police
raided a home in Bangkok earlier this month, finding nine babies with nine
nannies. Mitsutoki Shigeta, 24, has been identified as the father of each of
them, as well as seven more. Authorities are looking into his motives, which he
says are benign.
The
children were apparently housed in unfurnished rooms filled with baby bottles,
bouncy chairs, playpens and nappies, according to Thai police.
"What
I can tell you so far is that I've never seen a case like this,"
Thailand's Interpol director, police Maj Gen Apichart Suribunya, said on
Friday.
According
to the Associated Press (AP), he added: "We are trying to understand what
kind of person makes this many babies." The investigation will centre on
Japan, Cambodia, Hong Kong and India.
"We
are looking into two motives. One is human trafficking and the other is
exploitation of children," said police Lit Gen Kokiat Wongvorachart,
Thailand's lead investigator in the case.
He said
Shigeta had made 41 trips to Thailand since 2010. On many occasions he travelled
to nearby Cambodia, where he brought four of his babies.
The founder
of the New Life clinic, a multinational fertility clinic that provided Shigeta
with two surrogate mothers, said she warned Interpol about him even before the
first baby was born in June 2013, the agency reported.
"As
soon as they got pregnant, he requested more. He said he wanted 10 to 15 babies
a year, and that he wanted to continue the baby-making process until he's
dead," said Mariam Kukunashvili.
She told
the AP, Shigeta also asked about equipment to freeze his sperm to have
sufficient supply when he was older.
And she
said he told the clinic's manager that "he wanted to win elections and
could use his big family for voting", and that "the best thing I can
do for the world is to leave many children".
Kukunashvili,
who is based at the company's headquarters in the country of Georgia, said she
never met Shigeta but received reports from her Thai staff. The clinic is based
in Thailand and six other countries.
She said
she also emailed Shigeta, whose then lawyer responded to say he was involved in
"no dishonesty, no illegal activities". He has not been charged with
any crime and, according to reports, is trying to get his children back.
The 12 in
Thailand are being cared for by social services and he has proven through DNA
samples sent from Japan that he is their biological father.
He quickly
left Thailand after the raid on his condominium on 5 August and has said
through a lawyer that he simply wanted a large family and has the means to
support it, AP reported.
Thai police
said Shigeta hired 11 Thai surrogate mothers to carry his children, including
four sets of twins. Police have not determined the biological mothers, Kokiat
said.
The case
came to light after a tip-off that followed allegations that an Australian
couple abandoned a surrogate baby after learning it had Down's syndrome. The
couple deny the accusation.
During the
raid on the property, Shigeta's former lawyer Ratpratan Tulatorn insisted his
client had done nothing wrong.
"These
are legal babies, they all have birth certificates," Ratpratan told
Thailand's Channel 3 television station. "There are assets purchased under
these babies' names. There are savings accounts for these babies, and
investments. If he were to sell these babies, why would he give them these
benefits?"
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