Five men and a woman are on trial before the Marseille criminal court for setting up a prostitution network which exploited dozens of young Russian and Ukrainian women.
Prosecutor Gaëlle Ortiz requested up to eight years in prison on Thursday March 14 against five legionnaires and the companion of one of them, tried for “aggravated pimping”, “money laundering”, “criminal association” or “human trafficking”. The prostitution network brought in young Russian and Ukrainian women whom it transferred from medium-sized town to medium-sized town, to renew the supply.
The magistrate also demanded fines ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 euros, and above all a return to detention for the six defendants, who have already served between five months and two years of pre-trial detention, as well as banning from national territory for four of them. between them not having French nationality.
“These men were military heroes, but you can be heroes and also delinquents”, argued prosecutor Ortiz, adding: “they defended the values of the French Republic, but among these values, there is respect for human beings and the prohibition of financially exploiting another human being.”
The highest sentence, eight years in prison and a fine of 50,000 euros, was requested against Timofei Avilov, 39 years old, and Danil Karpov, 32 years old, two former Russian legionnaires, who admitted to being at the head of this pimping network, while claiming to have confined themselves to a role of “service providers”. The same sentence was requested against the Ukrainian companion of the first, aged 26 years old, “equal in responsibility with him”, estimated the prosecution.
Against the three other defendants, one of whom is still with the Legion foreigner, sentences of five to six years in prison and a fine of 20,000 to 40,000 euros were requested. “We are talking about human trafficking,” insisted the magistrate to justify the heavy sentences required, brushing aside the argument of the supposed consent of the victims. “No, they did not make a deliberate choice to have ten relationships sex a day, with sometimes brutal and dirty individuals. That’s human exploitation.” insisted the prosecutor, pointing “real, low-profile organized crime”. The trial ends Friday.