The little girl who sparked worldwide interest after being found living with a Roma couple accused of kidnapping her is older than initially thought, according to helpers.
The Smile of the Child charity, which is caring for the child, says she is aged about five or six, instead of four.
The charity said the revision follows dental and other examinations done at a hospital where the girl known as Maria until her biological parents are found is undergoing health checks.
She was found in a Gypsy settlement near Farsala in central Greece during a police raid looking for drugs, firearms and fugitives.
The blonde, blue-eyed child was strikingly unlike the couple she lived with, which triggered the curiosity of prosecutor Christina Fasoula, who accompanied the police.
A DNA test proved she was not related to the Gypsy couple she was living with. Police say the couple initially claimed her as their own.
Christos Salis, 39, and his 40-year-old companion, known as Eleftheria Dimopoulou or Selini Sali as she has two separate sets of identity papers, have appeared before an investigating judge in Larissa, near Farsala, to face criminal charges of child abduction, which carries a maximum ten-year prison sentence.
Both denied the charges last week, claiming instead to have adopted the child while she was just days old.
A defence lawyer said they were motivated by charity, after being approached by an intermediary for a destitute foreign mother who reportedly could not afford to raise the child.
They have also been charged with illegally obtaining official documents such as birth records.
Police allege the woman claimed to have given birth to six children in less than 10 months, while 10 of the 14 children the couple had registered as their own are unaccounted for.
Salis also faces separate charges, together with other people from the settlement, for allegedly possessing an illegal firearm and drug-related offences.
The president of the local Roma community, Babis Dimitriou, hopes there is no backlash against the 2,000 Roma living in the community.
The case “doesn’t reflect on all of us,” he said.
Regional police chief Lieutenant General Vassilis Halatsis said the authorities have found “dozens” of child trafficking cases involving Bulgarian Roma in Greece.