Court rules for transfer of Hungarians arrested in prostitution sting to France

Budapest, March 23 (MTI) – A Budapest court on Wednesday ruled for the pre-trial detention and transfer to French authorities of ten out of the 12 Hungarian nationals suspected of trafficking Hungarian women to work as prostitutes in France.

The French authorities put out a European arrest warrant for the 12 men who were taken into custody in Hungary on Monday in a raid coordinated with Hungarian police, the court said in a statement.

Charges against the 12 suspects include operating as a ring, trafficking women and money laundering, the court said.

The ruling is final in the case of ten suspects while the other two appealed, it added.

Under the court’s biding ruling the ten suspects must be transferred to the authority that issued the warrant no later than ten days after the ruling, or else the suspects must be released from custody.

Hungarian authorities said on Monday that in the raid carried out in Csongrad county, in southern Hungary, cash and assets worth several hundreds of millions of forints were also seized.

French authorities allege that the ring set up by a family in Szeged in Csongrad county sent at least 40 young Hungarian women to work as prostitutes in Bordeaux, Nice and Strasbourg. Most of the income was spent on purchasing property and other assets in Hungary, Ferenc Szanka, the spokesman for the local prosecution office in Csongrád county, said.

Under French law the suspects face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters