Nine people linked to Czech Casting face up to 12 years in prison over forcing women into porn films.
PRAGUE: Nine people will stand trial in the Czech Republic on charges of forcing young women to act in pornography films after luring them with modelling offers, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The nine people are all associated with the Czech Casting pornography label and face up to 12 years in prison on human trafficking charges, Prague city prosecutor’s office spokesman Ales Cimbala told AFP.
“The accused include people organising the Czech Casting project, as well as people ensuring finances, casting production and agreements”, but also photographers, camera operators and actors, he said.
The Czech organised crime squad NCOZ said earlier the group had published job offers for female models over 18 years of age in 2016-2019.
“However, detectives concluded that these offers were no more than a veil for the production and subsequent distribution of pornographic films,” the NCOZ said.
It added the women “were exposed to problems at work and on the personal level” following the experience.
“Many manifested psychological and health problems and had to seek medical aid including longer treatment,” the NCOZ said, adding that hundreds of women were affected.
Cimbala said the indictment file had 629 pages and concerned 18 abused women who were exposed to gradual pressure from the organisers.
“At casting, the organisers created the impression of a rush or played down the importance of the agreements signed” to make the women consent, he added.
Prague has been a popular destination for pornography studios since the 1989 Velvet Revolution toppled communism in former Czechoslovakia, easing censorship and paving the way for a market economy to replace Soviet-era planned economy.
The Czech Republic, an EU member of 10.9 million people, is home to the XNXX and XVideos porn platforms, run by the Prague-based WGCZ Holding of French national Stephane Michael Pacaud.
