NEWS AND VIEWS

Sex slave trafficking case jolts Detroit community

by Larissa Ghiso

Recently, we looked into the faces of pure evil. We looked into the faces of two sex slave traffickers masquerading as human beings.

One horror that has plagued mankind for millennia that has ostensibly been eliminated in our "enlightened time" is sex slavery. Or so one would think.

Slavery is alive and well here, now, in the year of Our Lord 2005. It is alive and well in countless countries and, yes, also in the U.S.

Last fall, the Ukrainian community of Metropolitan Detroit had invited Canadian investigative journalist Victor Malarek to speak about his book "The Natashas: Inside tbe New Global Sex Trade" and the two-year research that went into it. He spoke eloquently and passionately about the inhumane treatment of the women and children, about how they were tricked into accompanying the men, and sometimes just kidnapped off the streets, about how they were sold like chattel.

Imagine our shock when, in mid-February, the local police and FBI arrested two men in Livonia, a Detroit suburb, our own back yard! For months, they had held four young Ukrainian women hostage and forced them to "work" 12-hour days, six days a week in a strip club. They were expected to earn a certain amount of money each day. When they didn't reach their quota, they were severely punished and one of them was told that she would be killed and her body would never be found.

The defendants are Michail Aronov, 32, from Lithuania and a permanent resident of the U.S., and Aleksander Maksimenko, 25, from Ukraine, a naturalized U.S. citizen.

A police search of the properties of the defendants disclosed half a million dollars in cash and several loaded weapons, both "legal" and illegal (one had been stolen in Milwaukee), and proof that $145,000 had been wired to Kyiv and Prague.

Although an earlier hearing resulted in denial of bail, the men's attorneys claimed that new evidence had surfaced and a new bail hearing was needed. Cornelius Pitts, well-known in the Detroit area as a criminal defense lawyer, and his son Byron Pitts tried valiantly to present the defendants as "upstanding citizens in the community," twice quoting the Bible, using the phrase "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit," and even citing Kermit the Frog ("It's not easy being green."). We found it difficult to comprehend the relevance.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Chutkow then gave a short and concise presentation on why the government is convinced that the men are a flight risk and a danger to the community.

In the end, all the efforts of the defense attorneys were to no avail: Judge Victoria Roberts reached her decision on the day of the second hearing, and the decision was: no bail; the two men are to remain where they are (i.e., in prison) until the trial. The charge of human trafficking carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Now three new developments have surfaced: the two defendants are appealing the detention order at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. As well, three more women who had been held hostage by the defendants have recently been found. And, finally, Attorney Chutkow has filed for a five-month continuance of the trial, and Judge Roberts will rule on that motion in a few weeks.

The United Nations has declared international trafficking of women for sex exploitation to be the biggest violation of human rights in today's world. Mr. Malarek stated that it is the third largest source of illegal income, after arms and drugs, generating about $12 billion a year - a lucrative business that is not taxed by any government in the world.

Those of us from the Ukrainian National Women's League of America who attended the hearings hope and pray that by supporting the Department of Justice in its prosecution, educating the community at large and giving aid, if at all possible, to the abducted women and children, these evil practices will at least be reduced, if not eliminated.

Larissa Ghiso of Royal Oak, Mich., is a retired English teacher, librarian and archivist with B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Michigan. She is a member of Branch 96 of Ukrainian National Women's League of America.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 29, 2005, No. 22, Vol. LXXIII

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