BEST PRACTICES LEAD TO SUCCESSFUL TIP PROSECUTIONS IN LOWER

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HAMBURG 000009

SIPDIS

STATE FOR G/TIP, EUR/CE, EUR/PGI, DRL, G-AC, INL, AND PRM
STATE - PLEASE PASS TO USAID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB GM
SUBJECT: BEST PRACTICES LEAD TO SUCCESSFUL TIP PROSECUTIONS IN LOWER
SAXONY

REF: A. A) BERLIN 307

B. B) BERLIN 256

C. C) BERLIN 65

D. D) 07 HAMBURG 017

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1. (SBU) Summary. Combating trafficking in persons (TIP) is a
priority for officials in the northern German state of Lower
Saxony. In 2008, state officials amended a decree regulating
cooperation among the various agencies in order to improve
victim assistance programs and cooperation between government
and civil society. The changes expanded the reach of Lower
Saxony victim-oriented services to foreigner, employment, and
youth welfare offices and strengthened cooperation among other
agencies such as police, prosecution, and NGOs. Cross-agency
TIP awareness courses are routinely held and police are now
deploying specially-trained TIP units in cities throughout the
state. State prosecutors are determined to bring traffickers to
justice regardless of the charges. In the past year and a half,
four major TIP cases have been successfully prosecuted for which
investigations lasted significant amounts of time and victims
were willing to testify. The details of these prosecutions
provide insights into the methodology behind Germany's criminal
sentencing statistics and demonstrate the impossibility of
obtaining a complete understanding of the number of TIP
convictions based solely on the published statistics. End
Summary.

INTER-GOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION IMPROVED
-------------- --------------


2. (SBU) Although Lower Saxony has mandated anti-TIP
cooperation among state government agencies for several years,
the senior state prosecutor and organized-crime police
representative told poloff that coordination until recently was
not functioning as well as it should/could. On July 11, 2008
the Lower Saxony Interior Ministry made amendments to the TIP
legislation that are designed to improve cooperation among
police, prosecution, and foreigner, social security, youth
welfare, and employment offices, as well as TIP NGOs. They
established a cross-departmental victim-centered cooperative
approach to protect TIP victims. The foreigner, employment, and
youth welfare offices are new additions to the network.
Cross-departmental seminars for basic and advanced training are
conducted regularly to increase TIP awareness, optimize
coordination among TIP stakeholders, and improve victim
services. In 2008, the Lower Saxony State Offices of Criminal
Investigations (LKA) extended the reach of its TIP trained
personnel beyond the state capital by sending investigative
teams throughout the state to work primarily on trafficking and
sexual exploitation cases.

TIP TRENDS IN LOWER SAXONY
--------------


3. (SBU) The Lower Saxony LKA has an outstanding record in
combating trafficking in persons in this northern German state.
During 2007, 109 TIP preliminary proceedings were completed, an
increase of 42 percent over 2006 (77 cases). The number of
identified victims declined by seven percent during that time
period to 129, while the number of suspects increased by 14
percent to 160. 30 percent of the victims were German, 22
percent were Polish, six percent Romanian and five percent
Bulgarian. The majority of the criminal suspects were German
(72 percent),followed by Turkish nationals (11 percent) and
Polish nationals (six percent). 69 percent of German victims
and 76 percent of foreign victims were between the ages of 18
and 25. In discussions with ConGen Hamburg representatives,
Lower Saxony police explained that law enforcement authorities
have increased efforts to prosecute cases against individuals
who induce people under the age of 21 to engage in prostitution
(under section 232 subsection 1, sentence 2 of the German Penal
Code). Berlin has led the effort in prosecuting cases under
this subsection of the law (116 cases in 2007),followed by
Lower Saxony (80),North Rhine Westphalia (68),and Hamburg
(37). Country-wide there has been a 29 percent increase in
preliminary investigations into trafficking human beings under
21 for sexual exploitation (454 cases in 2007). Lower Saxony
police note that the number of victims trafficked from Bulgaria,
Nigeria and Hungary continues to increase. According to police,
Bulgarian trafficking suspects and victims are highly mobile and
flexible. Trafficking networks are spread out over several
German and European cities. Lower Saxony authorities have
observed a growing number of Nigerian traffickers who are
involved in human smuggling, document fraud, and the use of

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voodoo magic in order to coerce victims.

CHALLENGES TO PROSECUTION
--------------


4. (SBU) While the number of cases has increased, state
prosecutors from both Lower Saxony and Hamburg complain that it
is difficult to prosecute TIP cases, due in great part to the
reluctance of victims to testify, as required under section 232
of the German Penal Code. Police in both states work closely
with TIP NGOs to provide victims with protection, housing,
counseling, and medical and legal advice. Nevertheless, victims
often choose not to participate in trials because they fear
retribution, either against themselves or family members or
because they have returned to their former lives and put the
episode behind them. Prosecutors nonetheless use all penal
codes applicable in order to prosecute TIP offenders, but are
often not as successful as they would have been if there had
been victim testimony. Another inhibiting factor is that it
often takes months, if not years, to gather sufficient evidence
to ensure a conviction particularly against organized criminal
groups involved in TIP. The enlarged EU, which offers freer
intra-European mobility, has made identifying potential victims
more difficult for authorities. Police may no longer detain and
question women who they suspect to be TIP victims on the
pretense of checking their legal status. This practice had
enabled police in the past to bring potential victims to a
non-hostile atmosphere where they could speak without fear.
Hamburg State Prosecutor Wolfgang Zoellner told ConGen Hamburg
that prior to 2004, human smuggling was the main charge that
prosecutors used to incarcerate traffickers. Under the laws at
the time, the mere presence of a trafficking victim in Germany
was sufficient to prosecute traffickers using smuggling charges.
Lower Saxony Senior State Prosecutor Hansjuergen Schulz noted
that EU enlargement has had the benefit of better cooperation
among prosecutor's offices, particularly in Eastern Europe.

SUCCESSFUL TIP PROSECUTIONS
-------------- -


5. (SBU) Lower Saxony state prosecutors were successful in
prosecuting a number of TIP crimes in 2008. ConGen Hamburg
representatives recently discussed some of these cases with
Lower Saxony Senior State Prosecutor Hansjuergen Schulz. Four
are outlined below.


6. (SBU) On January 29, 2008 the Hannover District Court found a
Polish-German couple, Slawomir and Edyta Morawska, guilty of
trafficking in persons and pimping and sentenced them to five
and one-half years and three years and three months,
respectively. Between 2004 and 2007 the Morawskas ran six
apartment-based brothels in Lower Saxony. The Morawskas
persuaded, under false pretenses, young Polish women to travel
to Germany where they then forced them into prostitution. The
Morawskas also worked with human smugglers to bring women into
Germany. Some of these women were aware that they would work as
prostitutes, but all were held under harsh circumstances, were
denied wages, and were required to pay back "expenses" for their
transport and work.


7. (SBU) On July 2, 2008 the Verden District Court convicted
Stephan Klimasch of kidnapping/hostage taking with threats of
death or grievous bodily injury in combination with severe
trafficking in persons, severe rape, collusion to commit
trafficking in persons and sexual assault and sentenced him to
14 years imprisonment and subsequent preventive detention.
Police expect Klimasch will spend the rest of his life behind
bars. Klimasch's accomplice, Bernd Klisch, was convicted of
kidnapping and hostage taking in combination with severe
trafficking in persons, as well as rape, sexual assault, and
collusion to commit trafficking in persons and sexual assault.
Klisch was sentenced to 12 and one-half years imprisonment.
Both must pay two of the three female victims 150,000 euros in
damages and the third victim 5,000 euros.


8. (SBU) Unlike other TIP cases in Germany, Klimasch and Klisch
worked alone. The two criminals lured three women - two of whom
were German and one who was a Bulgarian student studying in
Bremen - to a private home in a residential neighborhood near
Bremen pretending to hire them for either PR work or as a nanny.
The victims were locked up, chained in a dog cage, and raped by
the accused. The offenders led the victims to believe that they
were part of a larger organization in order to install fear in

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the victims and make them believe that they had the capability
to harm their family and friends. In 24 instances one of the
victims was forced to have sex with johns over the period of a
couple of weeks. The victims were also forced to suggest
further victims among their friends and to "train" one another
for prostitution.


9. (SBU) On July 3, 2008 the Verden District Court confirmed
final judgment on its case adjudicated on October 15, 2007
against Stefan Brockmann and Fritz Witte. Brockmann was
sentenced to seven years and nine months incarceration for
trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation, human smuggling,
and pimping, and sexual assault as well as other less serious
charges. Witte, Brockmann's accomplice, was sentenced to jail
for one year and nine months for human smuggling and aiding and
abetting in trafficking in persons and pimping. Brockmann and
Witte, along with several assistants, ran four brothels in Lower
Saxony for several years. They employed women from many
countries, primarily Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Romania.
Many of the women were under 21 and investigators found that
particularly those from Romania had come to Germany in order to
obtain EU residency. Many of them were working with false
documentation. The women were held under severe circumstances
and were paid only 25 percent of their earnings, some less,
depending on their country of origin.


10. (SBU) In a case adjudicated on November 11, 2008 an Italian
was convicted of trafficking in persons, rape, and bodily harm
and sentenced to a seven year prison term. In this case, the
German victim entered the witness protection program and
comprehensively testified against the culprit.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TIP STATISTICS
-------------- --------------


11. (U) Due to the methodology used by the Federal Statistics
Office in compiling crime statistics, the Klimasch/Klisch case
and the case of the Italian referred to in paragraph 10, will
not be categorized as TIP crimes. In Germany the sentences
received by individuals convicted of multiple crimes appear only
under the category with the highest proscribed penalty. TIP has
a maximum proscribed sentence of ten years in prison.
Therefore, the statistics office will list the Klimasch/Klisch
sentences only under criminal code section 239b
(kidnapping/hostage taking with threat of death or grievous
bodily harm; maximum 15 years) and the Italian will only be
listed under section 177 (rape; maximum 15 years). These cases
demonstrate the difficulty in interpreting published TIP
sentencing statistics due to the fact that the numbers listed
under the TIP category capture only a subset of the total number
of traffickers sentenced; there exists another set of TIP
offenders who were sentenced on multiple charges but whose
sentences are listed under a non-TIP crime category in the
published statistics (reftel A). Because it is not possible to
obtain data that includes every case in which persons were
convicted for TIP offenses, attempts to assess Germany's
prosecution record based solely on published statistics are
unreliable.

COMMENT
--------------


12. (SBU) Northern German state prosecutors and police display
impressive dedication to capturing and prosecuting human
traffickers. They also have an in-depth understanding of the
duress under which victims are placed. Schulz explained how, at
first, police and prosecutors were unsure whether one of the
victims in the Klimasch/Klisch case was a culprit or victim due
to her unusual behavior. However, after researching the
Stockholm syndrome and providing proper medical attention and
assessments, they were able to ascertain the victim's innocence
and assist her effectively. Nevertheless, prosecuting TIP cases
remains a challenge due to the expanded EU borders, the
inability to force victims to testify, and the organized aspects
of the crime. End Comment.


13. (U) This cable has been coordinated with Embassy Berlin.
JOHNSON