Is this Maria's REAL family? Bulgarian mother with ten children, including two albinos, is quizzed by police who suspect she gave away baby in Greece



Greek police trace possible biological mother in Bulgaria



Sasha Ruseva gave birth to a girl in Greece on Maria's birthday



She may have given the newborn away after failing to register her



A couple believed to be the parents of the ‘blonde angel’ found in a Greek gipsy camp were arrested this morning in Bulgaria.

Bulgarians Sasha Ruseva, 35, and her husband Atana Rusev, 37, were interrogated by police officers before being released.

The couple registered the birth of a child four years ago at a Greek hospital an hour from the settlement where the blue-eyed child was found.

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Four of the children of Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev pictured today at their home in the Roma district of the central Bulgarian town of Nikolaevo

Children of Sasha Ruseva pose for photographs at their home today, including two believed to be albino (right)



Sasha Ruseva with one of her children, whom she claims is albino, posing for photographers in the town of Nikolaevo, Bulgaria today

Pictures from the Bulgarian village show the family have several children of a similar complexion to Maria – the blonde, blue-eyed child found in the Greek settlement a week ago. Two are believed to be albino.



The Greek Roma couple who posed as Maria’s parents for four years - Hristos Salis, 39 and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40 - are believed to have bought the child for £850. They are currently in custody awaiting trial.

The Mail has seen a copy of a birth certificate, stating that the Mrs Ruseva gave birth to a girl on January 31, 2009 at the general hospital in Lamia, 45 miles from Farsala, where Maria was born.

The document lists no name for the baby – who had not yet been baptised – but the birth date matches that given by Salis and Dimolpoulou to police.

The discovery of little Maria (left) sparked an international search for her parents that led to the home of Sasha Ruseva and her ten offspring, two of whom are pictured right at their home today in Nikolaevo



Three of the children of Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev in front of their home in Nikolaevo. Bulgarian authorities today questioned the adult couple who live here and are thought to be the parents of Maria

The parents’ identity cards, also seen by the Mail, shows they were born near Stara Zagora.



The Bulgarian couple were married in 1996 and had two other children prior to the baby at the centre of the case.

Significantly, both Lamia, where the child was born, and Nova Zagora, close to the area the Bulgarian couple hail from, are known to have been hubs for baby trafficking in the past.

Police suspect the Greek couple who posed as Maria's parents bought the child as an investment - raising her to profit from the large dowry she would fetch upon marriage.

Mrs Ruseva is now awaiting the results of a DNA tests to determine whether the little blonde girl is hers.

She told told Bulgarian TV that she gave birth to a girl while working in Greece 'several years ago' but that she had to leave the child because she didn't have enough money to take her home. She has had eight children.

'I intended to go back and take my child home, but meanwhile I gave birth to two more kids so I was not able to go back' she said, insisting that she did not get paid for giving up the girl.



Maria's discovery at a Roma camp has given hope to parents with abducted children, including Gerry and Kate McCann.



But documents suggest Mrs Ruseva may have given the girl away after she lied on birth documents, meaning her daughter was never officially recorded.

Paperwork from Lamia show that Mrs Ruseva gave birth to a girl on January 31, 2009.

That is the same date given as Maria's birthday by the Roma couple who the youngster was living with.

Charged: Hristos Salis (right) and his wife, Eleftheria Dimopoulou (left), said they were given Maria, centre, by an impoverished Bulgarian woman who handed over the child, saying that she could not afford to support her



Charges: Hristos Salis, 39, left, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, right, appeared at a courthouse in Larissa to answer charges of abducting a minor and holding false papers. They are pictured here last Thursday

Mrs Ruseva tried to register her daughter 10 days after she gave birth.

In a document submitted to authorities, she claimed that she was unmarried and did not know who the father of the child was.

IRISH ROMA 'CHILD KIDNAP' PROBE SPARKS POLICE RACISM ROW Police in Ireland have been accused of racism after DNA tests proved that two blond children taken from their Roma gypsy parents were rightfully theirs. Detectives were responding to public tip offs fueled by media coverage of the alleged child abduction case involving blonde-haired girl Maria and a family of Roma in Greece. In both cases, police suspected that the children, a seven-year-old girl from Dublin and two-year-old Iancu Munteau from Athlone, might be victims of abduction because they were blond haired and blue eyed unlike the rest of their immediate family. Garda commissioner Martin Callinan has now been ordered to produce a report explaining why the two children were taken from their families. Ireland's Ombudsman for Children is also to investigate the issue.



But an identity check at the time showed that Mrs Ruseva was married and had two children to another husband.

A note was put on her application which read: 'Warning – she is married'.

'NB: she is married although at the hospital stated she was unmarried but she gave her married name – we are awaiting judicial decision.'

There is no record of that decision being reached, however.



Greek police are now working with Bulgarian colleagues to determine if Mrs Ruseva's case is connected to Maria.



Neighbours of the Bulgarian woman said she has at least four children who are 'very blonde' like Maria.

The revelation tallies with the story told by the Roma couple Christos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, who were found to be caring for Maria.



They have been charged with child abduction after a raid on the Farsala settlement last week but deny the allegations.

The pair claim that Maria was handed to them when she was just weeks old by a poor Bulgarian woman who said that she could not afford to support the child.





