A verdict of the Košice I District Court from August 2010, which acquitted an owner of massage parlours of organising prostitution, is now final as it was confirmed by the Košice Regional Court which rejected an appeal made by the prosecutor, the SITA newswire reported.
The owner of two Košice massage parlours was charged with engaging at least three women for prostitution from July 2007 to December 2008. The prosecutor claimed that the three women earned the owner over a million Slovak crowns (more than €34,000) during this period. However, the District Court concluded it had not been proven beyond doubt that the criminal act did in fact happen.
The reasoning of the court was that the three victims did not repeat the testimonies they gave to the investigator before the court. They initially told investigators that paid sex was provided in the houses officially registered as massage parlours. In the court, they testified that they only had sex occasionally. According to their court testimonies, this was their "private matter" and the employer did not know about it.
"We confirm the verdict of the District Court. The court is primarily obliged to take into account evidence provided at the main trial. The prosecutor was unable to provide the required evidence," the chair of the Regional Court stated, as quoted by SITA.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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