Israel - Man suspected of prostituting Ultra-Orthodox woman

Police arrested a central Israel resident for allegedly prostituting an ultra-Orthodox woman from Bnei Brak over a period of two years.

The suspect will be brought to the Tel Aviv's Magistrate's Court for a remand hearing on Sunday.

The suspect, who has a criminal record which includes offences related to pimping, met the woman, who is in her 20s, at a haredi home. The man told her he was going to marry her and encouraged her to "go out to the secular world."

At some point, however, the man began to abuse the woman and demand that she work as a prostitute, while promising that he would invest the profits in various business ventures that would secure her future.

The central unit of the Tel Aviv police launched an investigation following a complaint filed by the young woman. According to the probe's findings, the woman was moved from brothel to brothel and her money was stolen.

During this time, the suspect was convicted of robbery, but his incarceration did not end the abuse. A police official said the suspect would call the woman from prison, threaten her and instruct her to deposit her money in his prison canteen account.