Supreme Court of Lithuania
20 February 2018
Facts
The individuals were convicted of trafficking in human beings and procuring prostitution in the Netherlands. This criminal group, acting in association with others, recruited women and girls, including minors, by deception and transported them abroad where they were forced into prostitution. The criminals took advantage of the vulnerability of the victims (poverty, mental disorders).
Complaint
The convicted persons lodged cassation appeals against the qualification of the offences, the responsibility, and a request for a retrial on a part of the case.
Court’s ruling
The Court held that the offence referred to in Article 157 of the Criminal Code constitutes a special offence of trafficking in human beings, as only a child (person under 18 years of age), can be a victim of this offence. In order to determine whether the offender has committed a criminal offence, it is necessary to establish not only the objective elements of the offence, which are set out in the disposition of the article as alternative elements, but also the subjective elements, i.e. direct intent in the perpetrator's conduct, namely knowledge or intent that the child is unlawfully exploited for slavery or slavery-like conditions, prostitution, pornography, other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, including begging, for the commission of a criminal offence or for other purposes of exploitation; and knowledge and understanding that the acts criminalised in the Article are being carried out specifically against the child. The Court considered that the lower courts correctly applied the Criminal Code.