Other events in Baltic States

Egert, an 18-year-old schoolboy from the southwest Estonian city of Parnu, became a human trafficker in Latvia, the regional Parnu Postimees reports, cites LETA/BNS.

A tactical unit of the Latvian police at 7:30 a.m. on Mar. 28, 2017 caught a group of human traffickers in the village of Gauja near Sigulda. Altogether 17 Vietnamese citizens were found stacked on top of each other in a white van. Five people suspected of human trafficking were arrested at the scene, including Egert.

Kaido Tuulemae, special prosecutor at the Western District Prosecutor's Office, said that it was namely the material collected in Estonia that helped to prove in Latvian court that the arrested people make up a criminal group, the compilation of which was prepared for long in advance. It is a significant nuance as a group will be punished more severely. Knowing this, the accused denied belonging to the group.

The Latvian court now handed a jail sentence to all the people arrested, while one person received a one year sentence, two were handed a four year sentence and young drivers Walter and Egert, who let themselves be recruited out of ignorance, were given a three year jail sentence.