Police said a woman, identified only as T. M. T., was charged with the “particularly serious crime of murdering a newborn by its mother”. The charge follows an incident that occurred in the early hours of Tuesday in a flat on Nobelova Street in Bratislava, according to a police statement shared on social media.
Officers were alerted after a doctor at a local hospital treated the woman for heavy bleeding. The doctor reported that she appeared to have recently given birth but had delivered only a placenta. When police went to her home, they discovered the body of a baby wrapped in cloth and hidden inside a washing machine.
Authorities said the woman, a citizen of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, faces a prison sentence of four to eight years if convicted. Police have also requested that she be remanded in custody pending trial, according to the Slovak news agency SITA.
Slovak media reported that the woman and her husband — who is said to have been unaware of the birth — already have four children. She reportedly told investigators she did not know how the baby ended up in the washing machine.
