A 70-year-old man in Lviv is suspected of human trafficking after he forced his disabled daughter to enter into a sham marriage with a conscripted man in order to get a deferral from military service. The father received 200,000 hryvnias for this "service," Lviv regional police reported on June 27.
As investigators found out, the incident took place in 2023. The pensioner's daughter had a second disability group, was vulnerable due to her health and difficult financial situation. Her father forced her to marry a stranger, who even divorced his own wife for this.
For this fictitious marriage, the conscript paid the elderly man 200,000 hryvnias. This allowed him to avoid mobilization by exercising his right to deferment as a guardian of a person with a disability.
The organizer of the scheme was exposed by operatives of the Lviv region migration police department together with investigators. He was charged under Part 1 of Article 149 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - human trafficking. The sanction of this article provides for three to eight years of imprisonment.
The pre-trial investigation is ongoing. Police are also investigating the circumstances of the participation of other individuals in this scheme, including an evader who used marriage to avoid service.
