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Anastasia Balezdrova

Days are passing by and the mystery of the little girl whom the Greek police have found in a Roma neighbourhood in Farsala is not unravelling. While the investigation is in progress and Maria is enjoying the care of "The Smile of the Child" organization for child protection, information from various sources is flooding the media.

In a telephone interview for the "Yellow press" section of the web site zougla.gr a Greek businessman, who has settled in Bulgaria, said that he had seen the girl at a hospital in the town of Sandanski in 2010, when he had been there with his pregnant wife. According to the description of Theodoros Athanasiadis, the child had had sight problems and had been in the hospital, accompanied by her biological parents, Bulgarian Roma.

"My wife asked the mother about the child's age and she replied that she was two and a half years old. The mother is a Bulgarian Roma woman and the father is blond and blue-eyed. They are poor people. They are working in factories in Bulgaria and they are doing agricultural work in Greece," Athanasiadis states.

In his words, Maria had not been sold to the Roma couple from Farsala but had been voluntarily given to them by her biological parents. The theory of sight problems is also supported by the testimony of neighbours of the arrested alleged parents who had taken Maria to a hospital in Thessaloniki for sight testing.

Meanwhile, STAR TV aired a new video from the archives of the current "family" of the child. According to the reporter, this is a celebration organized to mark the successful end of Maria’s treatment. The video shows a large number of guests, an orchestra, the alleged parents and the little girl who is smiling and looks happy.

Although different sources insist that Maria's mother is from Bulgaria, the Greek authorities have not yet submitted to the Bulgarian government a formal request for assistance in the investigation.

The new video has appeared at a time when the head of the organization "The Smile of the Child" states that probably the child from the first video circulated by the British tabloid “Daily Mail” is not Maria.

In the morning broadcast of the Greek public television channel DT Kostas Giannopoulos said there was a way to accurately establish Maria’s real age. "The dental examination which shows that she is not 4 years old but 5 or 6 was carried out by order of the prosecutor in Larissa. Everything that is happening around her is turning out right and the judicial authorities are following the process."

He noted that the legal procedures regarding Maria’s admittance to the organization, where she will remain until her biological parents are found or until she is adopted, had been launched.

According to Kostas Giannopoulos, the main problem of the trafficking of children remains the Greek legislation, which is too strict concerning the adoption procedures, and he urges the Greek government to change the legal framework. He appeals to all institutions and organizations to join forces against the exploitation of children. "We have all seen the buses coming from Bulgaria and Romania, transporting women and children. Then we see the elder children begging and cleaning car windows at the traffic lights. The smaller ones are lying or sleeping in the laps of begging women who no one knows whether they are actually their mothers or not, and all this is taking place for an unnaturally long time. All should join forces and stand up against this exploitation of children." "The Smile of the Child" organization cooperates with the non-governmental organization "Centre Nadia" which has introduced in Bulgaria the European hotline for missing children 116000.

Earlier on Tuesday, an emergency order of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court obliged all offices in Greece to investigate and review all birth certificates of children which had been issued on the basis of affidavits after 1 January 2008.

Interpol states that Maria is not on the list of missing children whom the service is seeking.