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PROSTITUTION

Teen forced to have sex with 500 men

A teenager had sex with 500 men over five years of being forced to work as a prostitute. The trial against a Stockholm couple accused of involvement in the pimping operation came to a close this week.

The girl, who is originally from Estonia, was forced to begin working as a prostitute from the age of 17. She continued for a further five years under the threat of violence, according to a report in the newspaper Metro.

Aside from being forced, by a mixture threats, violence and coercion to work as a prostitute with over 500 Swedish clients, the girl was made to work in a Tallinn strip club.

The girl was finally set free when the father of her then boyfriend paid a significant sum of money to buy her out, the newspaper reports.

The Stockholm couple on trial for pimping charges, are suspected of having kept a number of girls.

The trial against the Stockholm couple came to a close this week. They deny the charges of aggravated pimping.

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PROSTITUTION

Spain’s top court reinstates first sex workers’ union

Spanish sex workers have the right to form their own union, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, overturning an earlier court decision ordering the dissolution of Spain's first such labour organisation.

Spain's top court reinstates first sex workers' union
Photo: Oscar del Pozo/AFP

Known as OTRAS (or “the Sex Workers’ Organisation”), the union was discretely set up in August 2018 but was closed three months later by order of the National Court following an appeal by the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

But following an appeal, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of OTRAS, saying that its statutes, which had triggered the initial legal challenge, were “in line with the law” and that sex workers “have the fundamental right to freedom of association and the right to form a union”.

In its November 2018 ruling, the National Court had argued that allowing the union to exist amounted to “recognising the act of procurement as lawful”.

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Contacted by AFP, the union did not wish to comment.

When it was founded, OTRAS received the green light from the labour ministry and its statutes were publicly registered in the official gazette the day before the government went into a summer recess.

But three weeks later, the government — which portrays itself as “feminist and in favour of the abolition of prostitution” according to Sanchez’s Twitter feed at the time — started legal moves against it.

In Spain, prostitution is neither legal nor illegal but it is tolerated.

Although it is not recognised as employment, there is a large number of licensed brothels throughout the country.

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