Rabat:
A Moroccan woman who used to head a charity has been jailed for two years for trafficking in abandoned children, the national MAP news agency reported on Tuesday.
It said the woman in her 50s, who was not identified, was also fined 5,000 dirhams (about $500, 460 euros) by a court at Khenifra in the centre of the North African country.
She was sentenced for "her involvement in the trafficking of abandoned children" while "head of a local charity", MAP cited judicial sources as saying.
She had been in custody since March after being caught red-handed offering a woman "the adoption of a minor in exchange for money", it said.
The charity she headed has since been dissolved.
Moroccan courts in 2013 dealt with 5,377 cases of abandoned children, or nearly 15 per day, the justice ministry has said.
The government has introduced initiatives aimed at combating the problem, notably by encouraging families to adopt abandoned children.
According to a 2011 report, there are nearly 30,000 cases a year in Morocco of single women giving birth.
In seven out of 10 such cases the fathers are aware of the births, but most refuse to recognise the children as their own.