A Light Sentence for Selling a Human Being

11.11.2005
Vanadzor.net
by Samvel Poghosyan

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On July 20 th Yerevan’s Court of First Instance of the Kentron and Nork Marash Districts, Judge Zhora Vardanyan presiding, sentenced Marine Poghosyan to one year and six months in prison [...].
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In 2001, with the aim of providing for her young daughter, Marine Poghosyan went to Dubai to work for her cousin Armine Poghosyan, a prostitute there. Afterwards, she decided to lure good-looking Armenian girls to Dubai with the promise of non-existent jobs {maid or nanny}, force them into prostitution, and make a lot of money off them. [...] Maro’s daughter A. agreed to go to Dubai. “I was divorced from my husband and had a daughter to take care of. [...].Marine took A.’s passport, explaining that she had to show it to the hotel administrator. She never returned it. Instead she demanded that A. work as a prostitute until she could pay back the $7,000 that Marine had spent to get her to Dubai.
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[...] In July 2005, when Marine was out of the hotel A. called her mother and told her what had happened. A’s mother [...] demanded the immediate return of her daughter. [...] .
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In April 2005, when Marine Poghosyan was in Armenia, A’s mother persuaded her daughter to go to police. Although A. claims she earned around $5,000 in Dubai, she never demanded any of that money back during the trial.
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The court, taking into account that Marine Poghosyan had confessed and expressed remorse, had no prior convictions, and was the mother of a young child, sentenced her to one year and six months.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.