Brothers sentenced for trafficking sex workers

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has sentenced two brothers to more than a decade behind bars for human trafficking after they exploited two women involved in sex work. Judge Ronel Tolmay handed down a 12-year sentence to Obioma Benjamin Abba and an 18-year sentence to his co-accused Chinedu Justine Obasi after they were found guilty on two charges of human trafficking in 2017, notes a News24 report. Obasi was also found guilty of contravening immigration law, as he was not in the country legally. The court heard that Abba and Obasi had recruited the two women to work for them as sex workers, fed them drugs, and held them captive in a flat in Arcadia, Pretoria. Tolmay said that both the victims had suffered emotional and psychological trauma at the hands of their captors. During the sentencing, the judge noted the prescribed minimum sentence for human trafficking was life imprisonment, but that she had deviated from this prescription because the facts of the case did not justify a life sentence. She added that the psychological damage experienced by the victims could not be entirely attributed to Abba and Obasi, as both women were already addicted to drugs and working as sex workers before they were trafficked by the accused. ‘Their addiction made them easy prey for the accused.’ Tolmay also explained that Obasi had been handed a heavier sentence because he had contravened immigration laws and because he played a more prominent role in the trafficking of the victims.