Seychelles at the Centre of a Prostitution Ring Case in the District Court in Vilnius

The suspects are charged with supplying Lithuanian women to wealthy Arabs.

Founder of concert and event agency Harmonijos Pasaulis, Daiva Mondeikiene, together with three colleagues - Nadezhda Nitiuk, Edita Gabaliene and Julija Tislenko will be tried.

They have been indicted with profiting from prostitution of third parties as well as involving them in prostitution.

All suspects have had to provide written guarantees to not leave the country, and are submitting differing pleas to the court.

Investigators believe Gabaliene was selecting women in Lithuania for the sex work, while Nitiuk and Tislenk worked as escorts on the trips.

This case was investigated by Criminal Police Office and General Prosecution services.

It is estimated that around 280 women were involved in the prostitution ring, though the case deals with a smaller number as investigations into other offenses are still ongoing.

It is alleged that from 2001 to 2005, the suspects induced girls to travel to the United Arab Emirates, England, France, Monaco and the Seychelles by promising them modeling jobs.

The women were then involved in prostitution. A total of 19 such incidents were investigated. Some of the women are believed to have been under the age of sexual consent at the time of the alleged offenses.

A General Prosecution Service statement says that enough data was obtained during the pretrial investigation thus allowing the prosecutors to charge Mondeikene with organizing groups for the purpose of profit, allocating roles to accomplices in the trade and organizing prostitution, i.e. trafficking women abroad, including under-aged girls, by deceit or with their consent.

The indictment states that other members of the group kept in contact with foreign clients, wrote them emails, sent pictures of the girls, provided their personal contacts and selected the girls to be involved in prostitution.