A policewoman from Edinet was sentenced to 20 years in prison for human trafficking and child trafficking. The 41-year-old woman was also banned from holding positions and carrying out activities within the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a five-year period, IPN reports.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said that the crimes were committed between 2018 and 2021. As head of unit at a police station, using her power and position, she recruited and exploited a number of persons, including minors and older persons, through mental coercion, deception and abuse of authority.
More specifically, in July 2019, she recruited a 36-year-old man whose documents she seized when he was driving his car and threatened him with starting a criminal case over drunk driving. She thus made the man to work for a day on a field, approximately from 11:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., without food and water, not paying him for the done work.
The same defendant, threatened another man who was a former convict that she could cause problems to him in the future and made him perform forced labor on a makeshift farm. His work involved feeding and caring for animals, as well as cleaning the stables. He was also not paid for his work. The woman used violence against the man, hitting his head for the reason that he didn’t work properly and threatening him with jail if he complained somewhere.
In 2019 and 2021, she also recruited two minors and periodically engaged them in different jobs near the house, without paying them.
The defendant didn’t accept blame, using her right to remain silent throughout the examination of the case.
