A former Luxembourg Red Cross employee has been given a four-year suspended prison sentence and fined over €100,000 for running two brothels a short distance from the Grand Duchy’s border.
The trial of the 50-year-old woman, identified as ZD and originally from Colombia, ended on Wednesday in Arlon, where she was found guilty on charges of pimping, human trafficking, money laundering and computer fraud.
The court imposed a four year jail term, suspended for five years, Belgian newspaper La Meuse reported. ZD was also ordered to pay a fine of €8,000 per worker, totalling €104,000 for the 13 women involved.
The court also ordered the confiscation of €578,000, corresponding to money laundered through her activities, as well as her vehicle.
ZD previously worked as a nursing assistant and was employed by the Luxembourg Red Cross until her arrest. The organisation said at the time it was “shocked” by the allegations.
Also read:Former Luxembourg Red Cross employee goes on trial in prostitution case
Two brothels
Investigators discovered that the defendant ran two brothels: the Safari in Wolkrange (Messancy) and the Butterfly in Signeulx (Musson). The establishments catered primarily to women from Latin America, whom the defendant allegedly helped bring to Europe.
Prosecutors argued she obtained “abnormal benefits” by imposing a 50/50 split of the profits, a practice considered tantamount to pimping. The authorities uncovered a dual payment system: an “official” terminal through which approximately €40,000 passed, and an “unofficial” one that allegedly laundered up to €578,000.
The public prosecutor’s office noted that she was deriving “abnormal benefits” from these activities, imposing a 50/50 profit-sharing arrangement, a practice likened to procuring. Some of the payments went through an official terminal (around €40,000), while a parallel system was used to launder up to €578,000.
The defence lawyers, Luc Kennes and Ophélie Monhonval, maintained that the women were consenting and satisfied with their working conditions, adding that this type of prostitution is “better tolerated” in Colombia than in Belgium.
They requested a suspended sentence, noting that their client had already spent a year in pre-trial detention, including seven months under electronic monitoring, and that her house and vehicle had been seized.
However, deputy public prosecutor Julien Docquier had requested a sentence of up to four years in prison, a fine of more than €260,000 and the confiscation of several hundred thousand euros in assets.
(This article was originally published by Virgule. AI translation, with editing and adaptation by Lucrezia Reale.)