Swiss court jails Thai woman in biggest ever human trafficking case

A Swiss court on Wednesday handed down a ten and half year jail sentence to a Thai woman in what is believed to be Switzerland’s biggest ever human trafficking case.

The 58 year old woman, whose name has not been released, was found guilty on 75 counts of trafficking poor and mostly uneducated women from rural Thailand to be employed as sex workers in Switzerland, Swiss media reported.

The woman, who was also found guilty of charges related to money laundering and the promotion of prostitution, ran a complex, well organised and inhumane sex trafficking network throughout multiple regions in Switzerland from 2009 to her arrest in October 2014.

During the ten day trial, the court heard how the victims were subjected to terrible conditions and were forced to pay back travel expenses, which in some cases amounted to more than 1 million baht, to the operators of the sex ring.

Most of the women could not speak English and some suffered post traumatic stress following their ordeal, while others have since contemplated suicide.

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