KIDNAP VICTIMS CHAINED UP, FORCED INTO MANUAL LABOUR
BUCHAREST Dozens of vulnerable men and boys were kidnapped, chained up, whipped, fed scraps of food and forced into manual labour or fighting for entertainment over an eight-year period in rural southern Romania, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Three men and two boys aged 10 to 12 were found chained up and were rescued by police Wednesday in the mountain town of Berevoiesti during searches at the homes of suspects — members of an extended Roma family.
Organized crime prosecutors said the investigation involved some 90 suspects who they say exploited around 40 people with physical and mental disabilities or who were very poor, and made them log wood, beg or look after animals.
A statement said some victims were snatched from railway and bus stations, outside churches or even from their own homes and transported to private homes by members of the group.
It said the captives were sometimes held in chains, whipped, beaten and threatened, refused food or made to eat off the ground, and coerced into fighting each other for entertainment. They were locked up overnight to prevent them escaping. Some were stripped naked and doused with hot or cold water.