A couple from Ungheni district was recently sentenced to imprisonment for trafficking seven persons from the same district for forced labor in Russia. It was established that in 2012-2014, the offender, together with his female partner, recruited the seven persons to work in Russia, promising them high salaries, IPN reports.

In a communique, the Prosecutor General’s Office says the offenders purchased tickets to the victims and transported them to Lipetsk and Voronej regions. When these reached the destination, the culprits took victims’ passports on the pretext of needing to register them and to obtain the documents required for their stay. These were thus deprived of the right to interrupt work when they wanted. The victims were forced to do agricultural works for several months without being paid. They were provided only with minimum living conditions.  A sum of 77,000 lei wasn’t paid to them.

The prosecutors determined that last year the culprit illegally cultivated hemp in his orchard without the aim of selling it. Recently, the couple was sentenced to eight and, respectively, seven years in jail for trafficking in persons for forced labor. The man was also fined 4,000 lei for illegal circulation of drugs.

The sentence is not yet definitive.