VLADIVOSTOK, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - A farmer in Russia's Far East has been sentenced to five years in prison for using two workers as slave laborers on his farm, local prosecutors said Monday.
Zokhrab Gurbanov improperly confiscated identity documents from two local residents of the Primorye Region, forcing them to live and work on his cattle farm for two years without pay, a spokesperson for the local prosecutor's office said.
"Half-starved and poorly dressed, they tended the flock, repaired the barn and did other work," the spokesperson said.
A local court ordered the farmer to pay the men $5,600, including $1,700 in unpaid wages and $3,900 for moral damages.
The spokesperson said several other people had worked on Gurbanov's farm, but that they had been too afraid to report him to the police.
