Prague court: Exploited women can keep money earned from prostitution

The Prague High Court has ruled that two women forced into prostitution in the United Kingdom are entitled to keep the CZK 1.8 million they earned during their exploitation.

The decision follows a legal battle that began after the women, who were victims of human trafficking, sought compensation from one of their traffickers, reports ČT24.

The women were part of a larger group of Czechs lured to Great Britain with the promise of lucrative work. Once there, they were forced into sex work, with their earnings and identification documents seized by the traffickers. For months, the gang exploited them, taking all the money they made while the women lived in slave-like conditions.

Last year, the Prague High Court convicted five members of the gang responsible for the trafficking operation. Four were sentenced to prison, while one received a suspended sentence. At that time, however, the court declined to award financial compensation to the women. The ruling argued that the money in question was earned through prostitution, making it inappropriate to compensate the women based on those earnings.

This decision was met with criticism, and the women turned to the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court ruled in their favor, stating that the source of the money was irrelevant. What mattered, the court said, was that the women had been unlawfully deprived of their earnings.

“To put it simply, the key issue is not how the complainants got the money, but that it was illegally withheld from them,” the Constitutional Court stated in its ruling. The decision led the Prague High Court to reconsider the case.

On Tuesday, the High Court rejected the trafficker’s appeal, finalizing the order for him to pay the women CZK 1.8 million in compensation. One of the women is entitled to CZK 1.4 million, while the other is to receive CZK 370,000.

The women are also entitled to further compensation from other members of the gang who participated in their exploitation. While spokesperson Vít Tomáš Vatra of the High Court confirmed the ruling, he declined to comment on the exact amount the women might receive from the other traffickers involved.

This case marks a significant victory for victims of human trafficking, highlighting that the illegal exploitation of individuals cannot negate their right to restitution, regardless of the circumstances surrounding how they were forced to earn money.