A Maltese man and his Chinese girlfriend have been remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to human trafficking and living off the earnings of prostitution.
The Maltese man, Winston-Joseph Zara, 45 from St Julian's is the owner of four massage parlours. The court heard how his girlfriend, Zhang Tianxia is said to have helped Zara run the parlours.
The pair are formally charged with human trafficking, forcing two women into prostitution and profiting off them, living off earnings of prostitution, being accomplices in the running of a brothel, owning a business and allowing prostitution to take place inside and causing fear that violence would be used against the two women.
Zara is also charged with stealing a mobile phone, employing people in a position when they are not licensed to work in that position, employing people without a permit to work in Malta in the first place, using his massage parlours for reasons outside what the establishments are licensed for and relapsing.
During today's proceedings, a Thai woman who spent some time working in one of the parlours took the witness stand via video conference.
She told the court how she had been in Malta for eight months. During her first month she worked at a different massage parlour and spent the remaining time working under Zara. She described to the court that she was made to work seven days a week, and had to sleep in the massage parlour that she ran. Working times were between 10am and 10pm.
From her testimony, it emerged that in the case of this particular witness, she was not forced to commit sexual acts on clients entering the shop, according to her own testimony. She described how for a regular massage lasting one hour, the client would be charged €45 and she would keep €10 of that.
Allegedly, because Zara was aware that in some instances extra services were given by the witness when working at the previous massage parlour, he informed her that if she wanted to earn some extra money she could also accept to offer some "extras".
She told the court that in the event that extra services were offered, she would keep the sum of money received related to the act. She said that the majority of clients did not ask for anything extra, and that normally she would decline when there was such a request. On a few occasions however, when a form of sexual act was requested, she obliged and kept the extra earnings.
The witness also claimed to having been charged €200 a month to sleep in a fold-up bed inside the parlour.
From cross-examination, the witness said that she would not inform Zara of every occasion when any extra services were given, therefore he would have no idea the extent of it or how much money was raised.
The witness also claimed that Zara's girlfriend who is also accused, was aware of all that was happening within the parlours.
Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, presiding over the case, denied bail on the grounds that Tiaxia might abscond and that witnesses still had to be called to the stand to testify.
Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Yanica Vital represented the accused. Inspectors Joseph Busuttil and John Spiteri prosecuted.
from The Malta Independent http://ift.tt/2huQPHg
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment