Swedish woman held 'captive', forced into prostitution

A woman who yesterday claimed to have escaped from a brothel after being forcefully prostituted asked the court for permission to testify through video conferencing because she was terrified of appearing in the presence of her pimps.

The 21-year-old Swedish woman, who is alleging she was held against her will and forced into prostitution by two Maltese men, is being kept by police in a safe house.

The prosecuting officer, Louise Calleja, yesterday asked for an urgent hearing of the woman's testimony through video conferencing so she would be able to fly back to Sweden as soon as possible.

"This woman was allegedly held captive... she managed to escape and came to us," Insp. Calleja told the presiding magistrate, pointing out that her claims have been corroborated by witnesses.

"She wants to testify to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else but she is terrified of the defendants and wants to leave as soon as she has testified."

The allegations concern two men, 48-year-old Samuel Ritchie, who is facing similar charges in another case, and 45-year-old John Saliba from Naxxar. A third man, 27-year-old Jonathan Gilson, was also charged with offences related to prostitution but no allegations of violence were made in his regard. All three pleaded not guilty.

Magistrate Giovanni Grixti did not turn down the request for the video conferencing, but said the case could not be heard immediately - neither was the court room equipped for video conferencing and nor did the defence have sufficient time to prepare for cross-examination. The main point made by the defence team, in fact, was that they had only just been told about the case and the witness was planning to leave the country immediately after giving evidence.

The matter will now be decided in the next sitting, on Tuesday. In the meantime, the defendants were granted bail on condition that they do not make any attempts to contact the witness.

Mr Saliba and Mr Gilson were separately charged for running a brothel in a small club in Sliema, the 'Blue Moon'.

In connection with the latter charge, seven women aged between 20 and 33, from Romania, Hungary and Poland, were arraigned for stripping in the club.

They were conditionally discharged and ordered to pay a fine of €25 each.

Giannella Caruana Curran and Anton Azzopardi appeared for John Saliba, Stephen Tonna Lowell for Sammy Ritchie and Chris Busietta for Jonathan Gilson.