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Beijing – A 19-year-old man in China was arrested for selling his 18-day-old daughter to allegedly buy an iPhone and a motorbike, reports said this week.

“A Duan” sold his daughter to a stranger one year ago, receiving 23,000 yuan for her, approximately R54,500, the Epoch Times reported on Friday.

He used a popular online social media website, QQ, to find a buyer, with the eventual buyer purchasing the baby for the buyer’s sister.

Duan, who hails from Tong’an, Fujian province, south eastern China, was arrested after the buyer turned himself in. The mother, “Xiao Mei”, was also arrested when police tracked her down after she fled the city.

The mother reportedly was not aware of Duan’s intentions initially.

Both parents were 19 when they went through with the unplanned pregnancy, Times of India reported.

The mother, Mei, claimed she did not know selling her baby was illegal, as she and many others in Tong’an were either adopted or raised by other people.

Duan will serve three years in prison, while Mei was handed a two-year suspended sentence, according to the People’s Daily Online. – AFP