The key facts

  • The conflict arose over the interpretation of payment: the client believed he had paid 3,000 rubles for an hour, while the pimps believed it was 'per session'
  • The attackers broke the man's jaw and withdrew 18,000 rubles from his card, then returned it
  • The two pimps received one year and three months each in a general-regime colony; the prostitute was brought in as a witness

What happened

In St. Petersburg, pimps beat and robbed a client after a dispute over payment for a prostitute's services. This was reported by the head of the city courts' joint press service Darya Lebedeva on her Telegram channel. According to her, the man paid the girl 3,000 rubles, believing it was payment for an hour of her services. Forty minutes later, the girl got ready to leave, but the client pointed out the time and asked her to work another 20 minutes — she agreed.

The beating and the card withdrawal

After the meeting, the prostitute complained to the pimps that she had been underpaid. They found the client and claimed that the payment was 'not for an hour, but per session,' and demanded extra payment. Then the attackers beat the man, broke his jaw, forced him to reveal the PIN code of his bank card and took it. 18,000 rubles were withdrawn from the account — the amount the pimps considered underpaid for the services and the prostitute's moral damages — after which the card was returned to its owner.

The verdict and the victim's fate

The victim went to court. Two of the pimps were charged under Part 2 of Article 162 of the Russian Criminal Code (robbery), while the prostitute was brought in as a witness. The attackers pleaded guilty and compensated the damage, but by that time the victim had been deported from the country. The court sentenced each of the pimps to one year and three months in a general-regime penal colony.