Moldovan teenage girl begging in Russia to gather money for ‘wedding’

An adolescent and his parents will stand trial for forcing a teenage girl, who was to marry the young man, into begging in Russia on the pretext of gathering money for the ‘wedding’. The prosecutors in Moldova started a legal case over trafficking in children against them, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to a communiqué from the Prosecutor General’s Office, this March a man, his wife and their son aged 17 have recruited a girl aged 16 and forced her to beg in order to earn money for the ‘wedding’ with the young man. The man and woman went to the home of the teen’s grandmother in Orhei and asked the girl to marry their son. They told the grandmother, who was the guardian of the girl, that she will have a well-paid job in Moscow and will be able to gather money for the ‘wedding’. The grandmother signed the documents allowing the girl to leave the country. The same day, the young man and the victim left for the Russian capital and from there took a plane to Habarovsk. There, he accommodated the girl in an apartment, where there lived several persons, and forced her to beg on the streets in Habarovsk, using physical and psychological violence. The money earned from begging was sent to the ‘parents-in-law’ who remained in Moldova. The young man’s mother and father coordinated their son’s actions over the phone. From Habarovsk, the teens moved to Vladivostok, where the girl was also to beg. The girl was released on July 18, when the accused persons found out that the police in Moldova were looking for her. The young man’s parents were arrested, while the legal case against them was sent to the Centru Court for examination. The 17-year-old man is wanted. He is investigated in a separate case.