Appeal filed in human trafficking case in Gstaad

The parties have lodged an appeal against the Gstaad cleaning ladies’ ruling Keystone-SDA

All parties have lodged an appeal following the conviction of a family of Serbian origin for human trafficking in the Bernese Oberland. The three defendants are accused of having lured women from their home country to Switzerland over a period of several years and exploited them as cleaners in appalling conditions.

Both the three defendants and the prosecution lodged appeals against the verdicts within the prescribed time limit, defence lawyer Florian Kaufmann told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Thursday. This followed consultation with the other parties.

The parties are now awaiting the written grounds for the judgement. This may take several months. Once the written judgement has been received, an appeal may be lodged within 20 days.

According to Kaufmann, the notice of appeal must specify whether the judgement is being challenged in full or in part, what amendments to the first-instance judgement are being sought, and what applications for evidence are being made.

Not a case of human trafficking in every instance

In mid-June, the woman, now aged 68, her 76-year-old husband and their 48-year-old daughter appeared before the Berner Oberland Regional Court in Thun, the court of first instance.

The court regarded the 68-year old woman as the principal offender. The daughter, too, was found to have been actively involved in the business of supplying low-cost cleaning staff. The husband, on the other hand, was deemed to have acted as an accomplice to the two women.

The judges sentenced the woman to six years’ imprisonment and the man to a partially suspended sentence of two years and four months’ imprisonment. The court sentenced the daughter to three years and nine months’ imprisonment. In addition, all three were given suspended fines and penalties.

The most serious charge was human trafficking. The prosecution cited around 40 victims. The court did not find that the elements of human trafficking had been met in all cases, but did so in a good dozen.

The defence lawyers had called for acquittals on the most serious charges. The prosecution, for its part, had sought harsher sentences of more than nine, ten and twelve years.

No ‘benefactors’

“More serious cases of human trafficking are conceivable,” noted Presiding Judge Jan Grunder when announcing the verdict in mid-June. For example, the victims had not been locked up and had also received a wage, albeit one that was far too low.

On the other hand, Grunder also made it clear that the ringleaders had been able to operate unchallenged for years, exploiting economically and socially vulnerable rural women. The family had profited financially from this.

The presiding judge dismissed the family’s claim that they had merely sought to help poor rural women earn an income.

Translated from German, sub-edited by jdp