Amsterdam - A Dutch court is to hear the case on Thursday of a Dutch couple's alleged illegal adoption via the internet of a Belgian baby.

The hearing is to follow a request to the court Wednesday by the Dutch child protection service for a ruling on the custody in the matter that is also the subject of a criminal investigation, according to a spokesman for the public prosecutor.

The case was brought to light by Dutch current affairs programme Netwerk, which exposed how the couple, both aged 26, bought the newborn from its Belgian parents, aged 24 and 22, on the internet in the summer.

The child, now aged four months, has since been living with his adoptive parents and grandparents in the village of Sibculo in the eastern Netherlands.

According to Netwerk, the Belgian couple had sold the baby because they could not bear the financial burden of a second child.

The Dutch couple said they paid "between 5,000 and 10,000 euros" (6,514 and 13,029 dollars) for the baby and brought him to the Netherlands a day after his birth in the Belgian city of Gent.

The couple also said the adoption was arranged through a lawyer, and that the Dutch Youth Service was notified. The couple also claims the Jan Palfijn hospital in Gent where the baby was born, knew too.

A hospital spokesman however said it was "shocked" to hear about the affair and said the child's biological mother had checked into the hospital for the delivery using the adoptive mother's name.

In 2005, another Dutch couple illegally adopted a Belgian baby. Attempts by the biological father to get his daughter back, have so far failed. (dpa)