Couple acquitted of human trafficking

Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court has acquitted a Romanian couple accused of trafficking Roma people who ended up begging and involved in prostitution in Geneva. The couple will receive over CHF60,000 ($60,500) in damages. Switzerland’s highest court has rejected an appeal from the Geneva Public Prosecutor’s Office. The prosecution had demanded that the Romanian entrepreneur and his wife be sentenced to suspended prison sentences for violations of the federal law on foreigners. On several occasions, the couple had brought people of Roma origin to Geneva. However, the people were too poor to pay the price of the trip: €120 (CHF128). So the couple lent them the money, also for basic supplies. But if the Roma migrants failed to repay them, the couple would pressure them by telephone, sometimes using threatening language. The tour operator and his wife stood before the Geneva Criminal Court, which acquitted them of the charge of human trafficking. However, the court ...