Cliff push threat human trafficker sentenced to over 3 years in prison
A human trafficker who coerced two young men into virtual slave labor by making threats, including to push one of them over the edge of a cliff, has been imprisoned.
Harju County Court sentenced 41-year-old Oleg Krištal to three and a half years for violently coercing two male victims, age 19 and 20, into inhumane labor conditions in Tallinn.
The pair were also required to repay an alleged debt.
The indictment stated Krištal had lured the victims under the false pretenses of entering into a business partnership.
To pay off the debt, which the court said was fictitious, the victims were required to work as bike food couriers via the Bolt and Wolt platforms, which Krištal monitored through a tracking app illegally installed on the victims' phones.
Krištal regularly used both physical and psychological violence to coerce the victims to continue working and, prosecutor Joonatan Hallik said, the victims lived in constant fear of repercussions and did not dare seek help.
"If the work performed was not productive enough in Krištal's opinion, he threatened and punished them," Hallik said, noting that one of these threats involved one of the victims being taken to the 30-meter-high Türisalu cliff, near Vääna-Jõesuu, just west of Tallinn. Krištal threatened to push the victim over the edge of the cliff, Hallik said.
The victims' work days could last up to 15 hours, and the pair were forced to live in a one-room office space in Tallinn, together with Krištal's partner and two children. The victims were given inflatable mattresses to sleep on, and the premises lacked basic sanitary and hygiene conditions.
"By having the victims stay in the same place, the man cut his expenses while simultaneously maintaining control over the young men to ensure they worked as demanded and handed over their daily earnings to him in cash at the end of each day," Hallik said.
That the case came to trial was helped by a witness described as observant, and who had noticed the victims' unusually long working hours and suspected that the young men were not acting voluntarily.
The Harju County Court approved a plea bargain between the prosecutor and Krištal, requiring him to serve a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence and to compensate the victims in the amounts of €34,969 and €20,212. To date, Krištal has compensated each victim with €6,000. Krištal is also required to pay legal costs.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Mirjam Mäekivi
