All news

Russian cleric accused of procuring prostitution in Belarus

According to the investigators, the Russian national attempted to talk two local women into going to St. Petersburg to engage in prostitution

MINSK, August 11. /TASS/. Belarusian investigators have charged a Russian national, claiming to be a cleric, with attempting to procure prostitution, Spokesperson for the Vitebsk regional branch of the Belarusian Investigative Committee Svetlana Sakharova told TASS on Friday.

"Investigators from the Investigative Committee’s Vitebsk regional branch have charged the Russian national with attempting to procure prostitution and taking a person abroad to be involved in prostitution," she said. Sakharova added that the Russian citizen had been taken into custody.

The investigators have found out that a resident of Russia’s Leningrad region, while staying in Vitebsk, attempted to talk two local women into going to the Russian city of St. Petersburg to engage in prostitution. On August 3, the Russian national and the two women were detained by law enforcement officers at the Vitebsk bus terminal while they were getting on a bus to St. Petersburg.

"A criminal case has been launched based on the data provided by the Vitebsk department on countering drug and human trafficking," a source in the Investigative Committee said adding that, according to the detainee, he was a cleric serving in one of the churches in the Leningrad region.

In accordance with the Belarusian Criminal Code, the Russian national is facing a sentence of five to ten years behind bars with confiscation of property.