Israelis accused of slave trading are smuggling their victims through Egypt to Israel, says a report.
According to Haaretz newspaper, three Israelis were indicted Sunday at the Tel Aviv District Court for trafficking in humans for prostitution and for attempted kidnapping.
Israeli newspapers have published a slew of stories about the country's sex trade this year, mostly recounting instances of forced labor by imported sex workers or women tricked into prostitution.
The prosecution claims that the complainant was flown over from Moldova to Egypt, where she and 12 other women were smuggled across the border into Israel by Bedouin, without having to undergo security checks at the border.
It is alleged, according to the paper, that defendant Albert Kolengayev, 32, from Ramle, is the head of a slave-trade ring and owns and manages a brothel in Tel Aviv. The two other defendants, Ruslan Babayev, 20, from Bat Yam, and Alexander Gabrielov, 24, from Hadera, are said to have helped Kolengayev run the brothel.
Prosecutor Yifat Rushnik said in the indictment that in May of this year, Kolengayev made inquiries about bringing over women from Moldova to work as prostitutes. He sent $3,000 per woman to his contact in Moldova, the paper reported.
The complainant, identified only as V.R., was flown to Egypt in early June 2001 following a promise that she would earn between $2,000-$3,000 a month, or 50 percent of her fees for her services.
She was taken to Cairo on her third day in Egypt and from there to a house close to the border with Israel, where she spent another two days, Rushnik told the court.
The complainant said that armed Bedouin men took her and 12 other women over the border to Israel.
She added that no security checks were carried out.
A number of jeeps were waiting for the women and V.R. was taken to a flat in Tel Aviv.
On June 17, she said, she was told to go outside where Kolengayev was waiting to examine her with a view to buying her. She says that she was sold to Kolengayev who intended to use her as a prostitute in his brothel and possibly sell her later.
She received no money during her first month at Kolengayev's brothel, and only NIS20 ($6) for each customer she met with during her second month there, when the average price charged by the brothel was NIS 100 ($25).
V.R. ran away from the brothel on August 7, fleeing to an apartment owned by a man she knew from the brothel.
The three defendants came to the apartment a week later and tried to force her to come back to the brothel.
The prosecution said that the three acted violently, breaking windows, banging the shutters with sticks, shouting and threatening the complainant and demanding that she come with them.
V.R., however, refused to leave and, as the police arrived at the apartment, the three defendants ran away.
The prosecution asked the court to hold the suspects until the end of court proceedings against them.
The court will decide next week on the prosecution's request, the paper added - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
