A man from the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia was sentenced to nine years and eleven months in jail for raping a girl aged 17, IPN reports.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the man, who is a former convict, in November 2018, only several months after being released from prison, took a hitchhiking girl going to a village of Ceadîr-Lunga district while travelling to Comrat municipality by his car.

Promising he will take her up to her native village, the man lured the girl into his car and on the road raped her after leaving the street and stopping in an orchard.

The sentence can be appealed to a higher court.