Cyprus convicts ‘sex client’ on trafficking charges

A male customer who was apprehended during a raid at a suspected illegal brothel in Limassol last year has been sentenced to prison on trafficking and exploitation charges, after Cypriot lawmakers introduced tough but controversial legislation that criminalizes sex buyer behavior.

According to local media, a 35-year-old Romanian man on Thursday was sentenced to three and a half years in prison after a Limassol judge found him guilty of vice crimes including trafficking for the purpose of a sexual exploitation, illegal earnings obtained from prostitution, and pimping.

The man, originally described in local media as a client, was apprehended along with a 23-year-old female sex worker, also a Romanian national. The two were detained during a raid last year in Yermasoyia, Limassol district, when law enforcement agents barged into an apartment on an early afternoon in late June.

Local media said the woman was initially booked on drug-related charges after a raiding officer reportedly spotted 15 grams of cannabis hidden underneath a coffee table in the living room.

Possession of cannabis in the Republic of Cyprus could land someone in jail for up to 8 years, with a maximum of two years for first-time offenders under the age of 25.

Both the woman and the man walked away after being questioned by officers at the police station.

But police said the woman and another 25-year-old Romanian female, who had also been apprehended in a different apartment during the same operation, were later recognized as trafficking victims, prompting officers to arrest the man in early July and prosecutors to file a case against him in criminal court.

Police did not respond to comment on whether the defendant was a customer but a press officer told Knews on Saturday that the man was convicted on all charges listed in the sexual exploitation case.

In 2019 Cypriot lawmakers passed a bill criminalizing the behavior of clients who pay for sex in cases where sex workers are victims of trafficking.

The bill elevates the behavior of customers to an illegal act if they seek, use, or benefit from sex services offered by individuals who fall under the definition and protection of trafficking victims.

Lawmakers passed the new law unanimously while an amendment aimed at providing legal recourse to defendants a chance to prove they had no knowledge that a person was a victim of sex trafficking was defeated by 46 votes against and one.

Trafficking is the recruiting, transporting, harboring, or receiving of a person through force in order to exploit him or her for prostitution, forced labor, or slavery.

Prostitution in the Republic of Cyprus is not illegal but the sex industry remains unregulated.

A local law still on the books makes the running of brothels anywhere unlawful by definition, giving police a legal footing to raid suspected houses of ill repute and detain sex workers unless they are found to be victims.