In November 2023, a young woman traveled from Kyiv in Ukraine to Denmark, where another woman with criminal ulterior motives was ready to receive her at Copenhagen Airport.
This is the opinion of the prosecuting authority at the Copenhagen Police, who have charged the second woman – a Ukrainian who is currently 20 years old – for human trafficking, serious violence and extortion.
According to the indictment, the 20-year-old went with the newly arrived woman to the shopping centers Fisketorvet and Field’s, where underwear was bought for her.
The course was then set towards an address in Sydhavnen, where the newly arrived woman was to prostitute herself.
According to the indictment, the 20-year-old defendant was in league with a Ukrainian man, now approximately 19 years old, and several unidentified accomplices.
They abused their power and took advantage of the newly arrived woman’s vulnerable position to traffic her, the indictment reads.
They provided a room for the newly arrived woman, instructed her in the work, provided a price list and advertised her services on prostitution websites. It happened with the profile “Petite Elizabeth”.
She was stripped of her ID papers, phone and money, and then she was made to serve up to ten customers per day.
According to the indictment, the 20-year-old woman and other masterminds demanded that the newly arrived woman should earn 40,000 euros, equivalent to approximately 300,000 kroner, by working as a prostitute. Alternatively, she could be paid off for half that amount.
That message reportedly caused the woman to pass out.
She was deprived of sleep for a week, did not get enough food, was deprived of her freedom for a long time and was forced to consume pills and alcohol, the indictment states.
In Sydhavnen, according to the indictment, the accused woman also physically attacked the new arrival, who, among other things, had her face knocked several times into a bathroom wall, after which the accused sat on the woman and choked her, so that she was about to suffocate in his own blood.
She may have been in mortal danger.
It is relatively rare for criminal proceedings to be instituted on human trafficking, and it is even rarer that someone is convicted of it.
Often the cases run aground on the fact that it cannot be proven that the element of coercion and exploitation is present, which is required to convict of human trafficking.
In the case against the Ukrainian woman, the prosecutor’s office has also filed a subsidiary – i.e. a subordinate – charge.
So if the court believes that there is no evidence of human trafficking, the prosecution will instead have the young Ukrainian woman sentenced for the relatively new provision on human exploitation.
– If there was no element of coercion, but rather gross exploitation, the human exploitation provision can be used instead, says senior prosecutor Mads Bjerg Olesen.
It is punished more leniently than human trafficking.
The 20-year-old Ukrainian is also accused of robbing seven women. In other words, having made money from their prostitution.
Six court days have been set aside for the case in the Court at Frederiksberg. It begins on March 24 and the last day is April 24.
The 19-year-old Ukrainian man, who is believed to be an accomplice, was jailed in early 2025 after being internationally wanted. He is charged with the same crimes as the Ukrainian woman.
The hope of the prosecution is that charges can be brought against him soon, so that they can be dealt with at the same time in the district court. He pleads not guilty. It is not clear how the woman behaves.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
