One of the cases more strange I had to write about for my newspaper was the one of a man wrongly accused of the rape of a teenager. The mother of the girl demanded the suspect, who was her relative.
The case unveiled a net of modern slavery. At the top was the accuser, who had immigrated from Morocco and established in my city.
She had started a scam calling poor men from her country and promising them good jobs well paid to sustain their families.
When they arrived, she took their passports and IDs, and with the help of a corrupt police officer, whose she was in love, have all these workers’ ripped of freedom by keeping their work permits and the rest of their documentation.
All the money they made was for the Lady, so no possibility to send money home. After a day of work in the fields as vegetable pickers, she made them do the house chores for her and her daughters when they came back. something in their culture is very humiliating
They were terrified because of her relationship with the police officer who could send them to jail or deportation.
She had fleed Marocco to escape from a husband with many wives, and now she had built a harem of men.
The man accused of rape had decided to leave her, and there he was, before the judge accused of rape facing long years of jail.
But when the trial began and was the turn of the witnesses, it was like the story of Susana and the two wicked older men solved by the young Daniel. First declared the supposed victim. She was scared. She told her story, pretty vague, answering questions about the place and the hour of the attack on her. Then, it was her mother’s turn, and she gave an account of the facts completely different. Nothing matched. Not the hour nor the place or the circumstances. It was obvious they were lying.
The man was declared not guilty, and the woman got arrested for perjury, human trafficking, and false accusation.
He could recuperate his documentation, and the police freed all his old companions.