People traffickers jailed for two years

The Limassol district court on Tuesday jailed three Bulgarian nationals, a woman and two men, the first for two years and the others for 20 months, after finding them guilty of trafficking people for the purpose of coercing them to solicit for money.

Police launched an investigation after the defendants were reported by a woman from a European country in October 2020.

The woman told police that she had been recruited by the defendants while in her home country to travel to Cyprus to marry one of the two men.

After her arrival, she said she was forced by the three defendants to go begging. The woman said she did it for a year and a half and all the money she collected was taken from her.

Authorities immediately recognised her as a victim of trafficking and took her to a shelter for protection.

It was the first conviction in such a case.