A couple has been sentenced to 10 and nine years in prison respectively and fined a total of €17,000 for having trafficked women and pimped them out as prostitutes.
A court heard how Robert Attila Majlat, 42, and Attilane Majlat, 37, would control women's lives by pimping them out for sex, regulating the fees they charged and taking the money they earned.
One woman, who met Robert Majlat when she was 19, told police had had "bought her" from her previous pimp and made her work in various countries.
She always handed her earnings to the Majlats and her fees were regulated by Attilane, who also fixed appointments with clients.
Although she wished to stop working as a prostitute, the woman feared that she would not have enough money to feed and raise her young child who stayed with the couple while she met her clients.
The couple ended up facing criminal charges after police received information from their British counterparts that they were suspected of being involved in a in a prostitution ring.
They were convicted of trafficking their victims to Malta, living off the earnings of prostitution as well as exploiting their vulnerable victims.
Friday's court decision brings to an end a long-drawn-out legal battle which saw them convicted on two separate occasions, only for a separate court to then quash those judgments.
In 2019 they were each found guilty and condemned to a jail term of 12 years by a Magistrates’ Court, which concluded that the accused were the masterminds behind the racket.
That first conviction was quashed on appeal, on the grounds that the first court had not allowed the defence to cross-examine two alleged victims brought to Malta for prostitution purposes.
The case was sent back to the Magistrates’ Court which confirmed the conviction but condemned each of the accused to a nine-year term of imprisonment.
Again they filed an appeal and for a second time, the conviction was quashed by the Court of Criminal Appeal over an error by the Attorney General.
In that judgement delivered last February, Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja annulled the conviction because the prosecution should not have decided to have the case tried before the Magistrates’ Courts, but rather, before the superior courts.
Since the punishment had been increased by one degree on account of the fact that the victim was a vulnerable person, the resulting punishment would fall beyond the competence of the Magistrates’ Courts, namely a possible maximum jail term exceeding 12 years.
Following that second annulment, Majlat’s case returned to the Magistrates’ Court for the Attorney General to issue a bill of indictment that would send the proceedings to trial before the Criminal Court.
But that is when the defence and the prosecution informed the magistrate that the parties had reached a plea deal after the aggravating charge of recidivism turned out to be unsubstantiated.
On Friday, that plea bargaining agreement was upheld by the Criminal Court, presided over by Madam Justice Edwina Grima, who condemned Robert Attila Majlat to a 10-year term of imprisonment and a €10,000 fine.
Attilane Majlat was handed a nine-year jail term and a fine of €7,000.
AG lawyer Etienne Savona prosecuted. Lawyers Noel Bianco and Alfred Abela were defence counsel. Lawyer Lara Dimitrijevic appeared parte civile.