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Stockholm mum acquitted of trafficking

The 47-year-old Stockholm mum, who last year was sentenced to prison after keeping Polish women under “slave-like conditions” has been acquitted of the trafficking charges by the Svea Court of Appeal (Hovrätten).

The Polish women, reported to be in their early twenties, were forced to work as cleaners and nannies for up to 19 hours per day, seven days a week in return for slave wages.

It was discovered at the time that the young women were housed in a cramped closet in a lavishly furnished three-bedroom apartment in the Stockholm suburb of Solna.

According to newspaper reports the young women were subjected to threats of violence and were forced to steal clothing and home decor on behalf of their employer who had originally promised them a monthly wage of 10,000 kronor ($1,400).

One of the women in fact received eight kronor a day for four months, while another received no money at all, according to the charge sheet.

The matter was brought to the attention of the police after one of the women was able to report the treatment to the Polish embassy in Stockholm.

However, the Court of Appeal found on Friday that although the woman had tricked the four Polish women to come and work for her in Sweden, paying them less than she had initially promised, it was not a case of human trafficking.

Instead the woman was convicted of fraud.

Instead of serving 2 years she will now have her sentence shortened to 10 months in prison.

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CHRISTMAS

Police evacuate German Christmas market after security scare

Police in Berlin evacuated on Saturday night the Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz, the target of a deadly terror attack three years ago.

Police evacuate German Christmas market after security scare
Police near the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market on Saturday. Photo: DPA

The city’s police tweeted at around 8:30pm on Saturday that they were investigating a “possibly suspicious object”.

Following a two-hour long investigation, the alarm was lifted. No suspicious objects were found, German media including Bild and Der Tagesspiegel reported.

Two men who “left the square suspiciously quickly” have been arrested following Saturday’s events, police said in a briefing at the scene according to Der Tagesspiegel.

No further information was initially released or confirmed about the pair.

Large numbers of armed police were present and the scene was also being investigated by police dogs, according to Berliner Zeitung.

The Christmas market is located close to the Gedächtniskirche church, one of the most recognizable buildings in the German capital.

12 people lost their lives and several others wounded in a terror attack on the Breitscheidplatz market in 2016, when Tunisian Anis Amri drove a lorry into the Christmas market.

Amri was later shot and killed by police in Italy while on the run.

Visitors to the Christmas market left the area in a calm and orderly manner after the alert was raised on Saturday, Berlin’s police wrote on Twitter.

Trains at Zoologischer Garten station were temporarily delayed during the police operation.

READ ALSO: Berlin remembers victims of Christmas market terror attack three years on

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