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A policeman (left) meets with a Nigerian defendant outside the courtroom before the start of the trial of a prostitution ring case in Lyon on November 6, 2019. ROMAIN LAFABREGUE / AFP

In France, 24 people are tried in correctional law in Lyon, in the south-east of the country. They are all suspected of being involved in a large prostitution network of Nigerian women. The sentences requested by the prosecutor are severe.

With our special correspondent in Lyon, Pierre Olivier

" Authorize any tolerance in this file, it trivialize the activity of the network, " warns from the outset the prosecutor. In the general opinion of the lawyers, the public prosecutor's office hit hard for all the alleged members, whether they were head-ends or mere links. During her indictment of more than three hours, the prosecutor endeavored to demonstrate that, contrary to what the defendants had explained at the helm, they did not in any case want to help these girls by bringing them to France.

►Also read: France: the trial of a prostitution network of young Nigerians begins in Lyon

On the contrary, we are dealing with human trafficking and sexual slavery driven solely by the pursuit of profit, insists the public prosecutor. To allow the slightest tolerance is to trivialize the activity, insists the prosecutor.

Exemplary sentences

As a result, the sentences requested are exemplary: ten years in prison for the two alleged heads of the network and a multitude of sentences mostly between six and ten years in prison, with a definitive ban on French territory.

The prosecutor was not more lenient with the prostitutes, who in turn became " mamas ". Those who have chosen to become terrible pimps have made the choice to perpetuate the system, the public prosecutor says. Three years of detention are required against one of these prostitutes who have become pimps.

Thibaut Claus, one of the defense lawyers, believes that the prosecution has lacked discernment between the various protagonists of the network. " I think the floor will mark a sudden blow this file , he believes. These facts are perfectly unpleasant and indeed worrying, I hear, but I think we must be careful not to give any example, because that is not the case, the role of justice. Justice is to describe in a precise and detailed manner the facts that are imputed to persons, and to condemn them accordingly, in the light of the facts, but also in view of their personality. "

It is now up to defense lawyers to convince the Court to impose less significant sentences. The trial is scheduled to end on Friday, November 15th.