The 75-year-old manager of the notorious Antwerp café 't Keteltje has been sentenced to four years in prison for human trafficking and running a brothel.
The sentence also comes with a partially deferred fine of €32,000, according to reporting by De Standaard.
“The facts are very serious. The defendants only had an eye for their own merits and were indifferent to the precarious situation in which the victims had to prostitute themselves,” the judge said the verdict.
The café owner was also banned from the profession for five years, during which time he is not allowed to run cafés, hotels, or other types of rentals.
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His son was also sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of €8,000, with a similar ban from the industry.
Two other defendants who worked for the café managers were given a 30 month suspended prison sentence and a fourth was given a year. An additional defendant was acquitted.
De Standaard reports that during the hearing, the father and son defendants said they “made mistakes” and “never had the intention to exploit the girls.”
Helen Lyons
The Brussels Times
