In the course of four months -from May to August 2009- four defendants recruited two victims through deception and attempted to recruit two other victims. The defendants abused the victims’ trust deceiving them in order to recruit them, and subsequently transferred and harboured the victims with the purpose of sexually exploiting them, and using threats of the use of force against them and their families to gain control over the victims.

According to her own testimony, defendant 2  had been engaging in prostitution for twenty years. Defendant 2, together with Defendant 4, deceived two adult females through sham job offers of well-paid jobs abroad – such as picking fruits and vegetables, domestic work, etc. Defendant 4 was a restaurant owner, and she received 1,000 Euros from defendant 2 for assisting her with the recruitment of the victims. Defendant 4 referred the victims, who were her former employees, to defendant 2; but she did not act in a coordinated manner with the other defendants, and in fact she only knew defendant 2.

After being introduced to the two victims, defendant 2 and defendant 1 -who claimed to be defendant 2’s husband, and who was involved in a romantic relationship with her- took them to the town of Subotica for the final arrangements before the trip. There, defendant 3 was given 5,000 Euros to provide the victims and defendant 2 with false IDs and passports of the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Slovakia.

Defendant 2 crossed the international borders from Serbia to Italy illegally, together with the victims. Victims and defendant crossed the Bosnian and Croatian borders through the woods, and the Slovenian border by boat. Defendant 1 -who is a national of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia- simply drove to Italy in his van. Once in Italy, the victims realized that they were not going to pick fruits or work in domestic work as promised, but that the defendants required them to provide sexual services. The victims did not want to engage in prostitution, but felt like they had no other choice, since they did not have any money or documents, they did not speak Italian and they were under threats of use of force by defendants 1 and 2. 

Defendant 2 told the victims that she would allow them to leave once they had earned 8,000 euro each, to pay back for the money spent on their documents and transportation. Defendant 2 would then give the money earned by the victims to Defendant 1, who also followed and monitored the victims’ work from his camper van.

The victims worked on highways close to major cities in Italy, using forged Slovenian and Slovak passports and IDs. Both of them had to earn at least a daily quota amounting to 700-800 Euros in the beginning and 1,000 Euros afterwards. Defendant 1 determined the prices for victims’ services as follows: 30 euro for oral sex, 40 euro for both oral and classic sex, 100-150 euro for anal sex. The victims were forced to work 10-12 hours every day, as defendant 1 threatened to beat them and kill their families if they did not meet the quota. Every time the Italian Police took away the victims´s and defendant 2´s documents, defendant 2 would contact defendant 3, who came up with new forged documents.

The victims were forced to work from May to July 31, 2009, when they managed to escape and go to Batrovci, Croatia. After that, the two victims were transferred to Serbia by the Croatian authorities, and accommodated in a safe house as human trafficking victims.

Defendant 2 stayed in Italy and kept providing sexual services until August 2009 when she went back to Serbia and met with Defendant 4 again in order to recruit another two women, witnesses 3 and 4. This time, Defendant 2 openly told the women that they would be offering sexual services in Italy. One of them accepted the offer, but later changed her mind.