Couple Bag Life Imprisonment Over Human Trafficking

A South African high court has sentenced a couple to life imprisonment for being involved in human trafficking and operating a brothel.

Gatekeepers News reports that the Nigerian national, Jude Ikenna Ijegulu, 34, and his spouse, Elizabeth Botes, 29, from Centurion in Pretoria were charged to a High court in Pretoria, South Africa.

According to South Africa Broadcasting Corporation which revealed this on Saturday, Ijegulu was also sentenced to two life terms on two counts of rape and an additional two years for being in South Africa illegally.

The court further ordered that Ijegulu’s name be added to the National Register of Sexual Offenders.

The National Prosecuting Authority’s Gauteng spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana acknowledged the sentence, saying justice was served.

Mahanjana said, “From November 2016 to September 2017 the two ran a brothel in Centurion where they kept two women. The man raped the two women, supplied them with drugs as well as physically and sexually assaulting them.”

“The couple would also instruct the two victims to render sexual services to clients. The Judge found that the two violated the Human Trafficking Act. The man enslaved the two victims and fed them drugs.”