7-year prison sentences for convicted sex traffickers overturned following judgment

The seven-year prison sentences handed down to a man and a woman convicted of sex trafficking through “massage parlors” were overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal on a technicality: the sentence was considered to have been imposed a manner that led to a lack of respect. clarity.

Maltese Winston-Joseph Gera and his Chinese partner Zhang Tianxia were taken to court in 2017 after one of their employees filed a police report, claiming that she and her colleague had apparently been brought to Malta from China to working as massage therapists earlier that year, only to have their passports seized upon arrival and their lives strictly controlled as they were forced to work very long hours and engage in sexual acts with clients .

Six charges were brought against Gera and Zhang: human trafficking, coercion into prostitution, subsistence on the proceeds of prostitution, keeping a brothel, keeping premises for the purposes of prostitution and putting people in fear women that violence is committed. would be used against them. Gera faces six other charges: aggravated theft of a women's cell phone, three counts related to illegal employment, using the massage parlors for services not covered by their license and relapse.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech delivered her verdict and sentence on December 16, 2020, acquitting them of the charge of making the women fear that violence would be inflicted on them. Gera was also acquitted of charges related to illegal employment and unauthorized use of massage parlors, and the theft charge was downgraded to simple theft.

Zhang was imprisoned for 7 years, while Gera was imprisoned for 7 years and one month, with the magistrate denouncing their actions as “a form of refined slavery”.

The magistrate also ordered the confiscation of the four massage parlors operated by the duo, as well as the income proven to have been obtained through them, in accordance with an article of the Penal Code concerning the confiscation of the corpus delicti, i.e. say anything that was used to commit criminal acts. a crime or obtained thanks to it. She also asked the revenue commissioner to investigate the duo's income and for police to determine whether Gera and Zhang could also be charged with money laundering.

But as she handed down sentence against Gera and Zhang, the magistrate specified the charges of which she was acquitting them before declaring that they were guilty “of all other charges”, a wording that would prove important on appeal.

Judge Neville Camilleri found a lack of clarity regarding the relapse charge against Gera. In her sentence, Magistrate Frendo Dimech noted that although Gera had previous convictions, the relevant convictions dated back to 2003 and Gera could not be considered a repeat offender for sentencing purposes. However, she did not specify that Gera had been acquitted of this charge.

This lack of clarity, concluded the judge, meant that the judgment did not meet the requirements of the Criminal Code, which specifies that “the court, in rendering judgment against the accused, must indicate the facts of which he was found guilty , must pronounce the sentence and must cite the article of this code or any other law creating the offense.

Judge Camilleri observed that this lack of clarity did not apply to Zhang's case, but because she and Gera were sentenced together, both sentences must be re-imposed.

The judge also stressed that since the sentences had been quashed, he did not need to consider the other grounds of appeal raised by the duo.

The prison sentences handed down by the trial court in fact respect the legal parameters: the sole charge of human trafficking can lead to a prison sentence of 6 to 12 years, whether for the purposes of prostitution or not. .

Coercing or inciting an adult to engage in prostitution is generally punishable by a prison sentence of 3 to 7 years – 4 to 9 years in cases where it is done “habitually or for profit”.