Seven defendants for slavery receive final convictions in second Berevoesti case

Seven defendants received final convictions on Thursday in the second case of slavery in Berevoesti, with the longest punishments being 8 years and 8 months' imprisonment. 

The Pitesti Court of Appeals accepted the appeals made by the defendants against the criminal sentence pronounced by the Arges Cour and lowered the years of imprisonment. 

After the re-trial, Petre Grancea received 8 years and 6 months' imprisonment, Maria Grancea - 6 years and 2 months, Laurentiu Grancea - 8 years and 8 months, Alin Grancea - 5 years and 2 months, Cerasela Onica - 4 years, Ilie -Valentin Furdui - 8 years and 8 months and Vasilica Grancea - 6 years and 2 months. 

The seven people were taken from their homes in the Berevoesti commune and will be imprisoned at the Mioveni Penitentiary. 

The Pitesti Court of Appeals pronounced other final convictions in the first case of slavery in Berevoesti, in September 2017, when five defendants were sentenced to up to 5 years and 4 months' imprisonment. Other three cases in the appeal phase that refer to the same criminal ring are pending. 

According to prosecutors, since 2008, several organized criminal rings have been started, based on family relationships, who have recruited some 40 minors and adults, through coercion, misleading, kidnapping, or taking advantage of the state of visible vulnerability in which they were. In some cases, victims were abducted from public places or even from their own homes, and then transported to the homes of ring members, where they were forced to do various activities daily, both in the suspects' households and near the locality. 

In this case, 37 people, both men and women, were placed under preventive custody in July 2016. After five months, the court admitted that women should be placed under house arrest.