Albanians Given 10 To 12 Years In Jail For Human Trafficking: UN

ONASA/AFP, Jul 25, 2005 11:54 PM

PRISTINA, July 22 (ONASA/AFP) - Three Albanian citizens have been sentenced by a UN court in southern Kosovo to between 10 and 12 years in prison for human trafficking, a UN official said Friday.

"The District Court of Prizren sentenced Vladimir Ukaj and Robert Sylaj to 12 years in prison each, and the third defendant Sabri Islami to 10 years," UN spokesman Neeraj Singh told AFP.

"The prison terms are the highest ever in a human trafficking case in Kosovo," he added.

Besides human trafficking, the defendants were found guilty of rape, facilitation of prostitution and falsification of documents.

Singh said the investigation found out that two female victims from Albania, one of them 16 years old, "had been lured to Kosovo with false promises of legitimate work, only to find that their supposed employers were in fact intending to force them into prostitution".

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since a NATO-led bombing campaign ousted Serbian troops from the mainly ethnic Albanian province in 1999 to end a Serbian crackdown on rebels.