Man Jailed For Having Sex With Human Trafficking Victim

A Cypriot court jailed a man on Friday for receiving sexual services from a human trafficking victim in a case prosecutors hailed as a milestone for the Mediterranean island.

“This is the first time that a ‘client’ has been convicted by a Cypriot court,” the state prosecution service said.

“The convicted person was sentenced today to concurrent prison sentences of 2.5 years and three years since he was also found guilty and sentenced for the crime of rape.”

According to evidence presented in court, the woman trafficked had been underaged when her ordeal began.

The person responsible for trafficking the woman was also on trial in the same case, with the Nicosia Criminal Court sentencing him to concurrent sentences of five and six years in prison.

He was convicted of trafficking the girl as a minor and an adult for sexual exploitation, financial violence, withholding personal documents, pimping, threatening violence, and common assault.

The prosecution service said it was also the first time a Cypriot court had convicted a person for “trafficking a minor, with the purpose of sexual exploitation”.