A woman from Bălți aged 39 was sentenced to ten years in jail after she trafficked the sister of her friend to a suburb of Moscow in 2013. According to the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Special Cases, the victim asked the culprit to find a job for her and the latter promised a highly-paying job at a café for her, but she was actually trafficked and forced to have sex for money, IPN reports.

The victim, who is from Ungheni, was 31 then. She sought help as she was in a difficult financial situation after her husband, who was a day worker, broke his leg and the family didn’t have sources of livelihood to maintain the four children. After promising the job to the woman, the culprit bought her a train ticket for 5,000 Russian rubles, which she was to pay back. While on the train, the woman was told that she will provide sexual services for money. She refused, but was forced by the situation to do it. The woman tried to evade, but the culprit’s accomplices took her passport and demanded that she should return the money for the ticket.

When she returned to Moldova, the woman denounced the culprit and her accomplices to the responsible authorities. Meanwhile, the culprit was convicted in another criminal case, for trafficking in children. In total, she was sentenced to 17 years behind bars. The Bălți Court also obliged her to pay US$1,000 in respect of pecuniary damages to the victim.

The culprit’s accomplice was convicted of the same crime in 2017 after pleading guilty.