Members of crime ring sentenced for human trafficking
A court in Gyula, in south-east Hungary, has handed down prison sentences to 16 people for trafficking women to Germany, whom they then forced to work as prostitutes, the court said in a statement on Thursday.
In a non-binding ruling, the court sentenced the first and second degree defendant to 15 years in a high-security prison, and handed down prison sentences ranging from 3 years to 14.5 years to the others. One defendant was sentenced to 5 years in a juvenile correctional facility.
Several of the defendants set up the crime ring in 2013, when they started forcing vulnerable women to work as street prostitutes in Germany. Some of the women had to pay a daily sum to them, others were stripped of all their income, the court said.
The group operated as a criminal organisation since at least 2018, the statement said.
