First Human Trafficking Suspect Emerges After Passage of New Law
The Prosecutor's Office has revised pimping charges for a stripper agency manager in custody - making him the first person in Estonia to face human trafficking charges.
A fresh legal provision established in April - the long-awaited passage that made Estonia the last EU country to adopt a law on human trafficking - allowed the public prosecutor to expand the accusation against Indrek Mandre to a much more serious one, reported Eesti Päevaleht. Whereas the punishment for pandering can range from a monetary fine to up to five years in prison, culprits found guilty of human trafficking face three to 15 years in prison.
But legal gurus need not protest injustice - a Supreme Court ruling says if a law changes midway through proceedings sentences cannot be made more severe. Mandre may face a harsher indictment, but his sentence cannot be more severe than for pandering.
Mandre, manager of the Eurostrip scouting agency, was arrested in February after his home and office were searched.
Ott Tammik