Operator, clients and employees on trial Aargau brothel employs underage prostitutes
The Aargau judiciary is investigating a brothel scandal: in addition to the operator, several clients and employees must also stand trial. They are alleged to have employed minors.
17.02.2025, 09:58
17.02.2025, 15:14
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- The Aargau public prosecutor's office is demanding four years in prison for a 60-year-old brothel operator who allegedly employed underage prostitutes.
- A 44-year-old client who specifically requested a minor must now stand trial.
- Five other clients and two receptionists have already been sentenced to fines or penalties.
The Aargau public prosecutor's office is demanding a prison sentence of four years for a brothel operator in the district of Baden. The 60-year-old Hungarian woman is alleged to have offered two underage prostitutes in her establishment.
According to a statement issued on Monday, the public prosecutor's office accuses the woman of having known about the age of the teenagers when she smuggled them into Switzerland and of having explicitly offered them as minors.
Following the conclusion of the investigation, the public prosecutor's office has therefore now charged the brothel operator with qualified human trafficking and multiple counts of promoting the prostitution of minors. In addition to the prison sentence, she will also demand a ten-year ban from the country.
Two receptionists sentenced
The brothel operator is the main defendant - but she is not the only one who had to answer to the criminal authorities. Two of the brothel's receptionists have already been convicted of multiple counts of promoting prostitution in summary proceedings.
The two Hungarian women, aged 36 and 45, were responsible for "appointments and service agreements in the business", according to the press release. They were sentenced to conditional prison terms of 14 and 16 months and expulsion from the country for five years.
Charges against several clients
The Aargau public prosecutor's office also investigated several clients. A 44-year-old Swiss man who specifically requested an underage prostitute will soon have to stand trial for sexual acts with minors in return for payment. According to the indictment, he faces a conditional prison sentence of eight months and a ban on working.
Five other brothel patrons have already been sentenced to conditional fines and fines of between CHF 250 and CHF 2500. They must also make reparation payments to the victim and pay the costs of the proceedings.
Based on the evidence, the public prosecutor's office assumed that it must have been obvious to the clients that the prostitutes were minors.
Loverboy lures teenager to Switzerland
In April 2023, information was received from the public that an underage teenage girl from Hungary was working in the brothel in the district of Baden, according to the statement from the public prosecutor's office. The authorities then found a 16-year-old girl and placed her in a protected setting.
The minor, who had lived in very difficult circumstances in her home country, had been deliberately recruited and manipulated using the loverboy method. A man had promised her great love, made her dependent and lured her to Switzerland - and then placed her with the brothel operator.
According to the investigation, the teenager had to service around 70 men in the brothel between January and March 2023. The authorities also discovered another underage victim who had worked as a prostitute for the main accused for three days.
According to the Aargau public prosecutor's office, the alleged loverboy is living abroad. The authorities there have since opened an investigation into him and an intermediary, the statement continues.