Czech trial of men who forced girls and women into prostitution on the D5 highway begins

The Regional Court in Prague has begun handling the case of a seven-member gang of men from Kladno charged with regularly transporting women to a rest stop on the D5 highway not far from the town of Rudná near Prague for purposes of prostitution. According to the prosecution, the defendants took over the area and decided which women might engage in prostitution there.

The money earned by the prostitutes was then taken away from them by the gang. The prosecution says the men committed the crime of trafficking in human beings; one also sold drugs. 

If convicted, the men face up to 12 years in prison. According to the prosecution, the defendants, who range in age from 22 to 47, transported prostitutes to the rest stop from 2009 until they were arrested in February 2013. 

The prostitutes were women with low educations from the lower levels of society. The prosecution says they were completely dependent on the defendants, who were supposed to arrange to cover their basic needs.

The prosecution says that in some cases the defendants used physical violence, threats, and other forms of pressure against the women. "He beat her with a computer cable or with his fists if she was gone from the rest stop for any length of time or had no customers," State Attorney Ivana Zagarová said when reading the indictment in court.

According to the prosecution, some prostitutes were also held under the influence of drugs. Some who were girls were reportedly even purchased directly from their parents abroad. 

In the indictment, the state attorney described a case from 2010 in which one member of the gang purchased a girl who was not yet 18 for EUR 2 000 from a family living in a Romani settlement near the town of Jasov, Košice Region, Slovakia. Her family allegedly also received some of the earnings from prostitution that the girl had to give to the defendants.