France: Muslim Tae-Kwon-Do Champions Forced Underage Girls into Prostitution

Three practitioners of tae-kwon-do, boarders at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (Insep), are among seven people being questioned this week in relation to a vast affair involving the pimping of minors in the Rhône-Alpes region, according to the police.

Those involved are Amine Manai, European under-21 champion in 2010 and French champion below 68 kg, who was jailed, his brother Adam Manai, 3rd in the European Junior Championship in 2009, and Moussa Cissé, vice-champion of Europe below 58 kg, it has been learned from a source close to the investigation.

The suspects are accused of having forced into work young girls, aged from 14 to 17, and placed them in a hostel in Saint-Egrève (Isère), near Grenoble.

The incidents took place mainly in Isère, Savoie and in Haute-Savoie.

The investigation focuses, to various degrees, on young men, for the most part adults, who recruited young underage girls, vulnerable and generally runaways. They made them work for their benefit in hotel rooms under the surveillance of “protectors” while doing publicity via internet advertisements. Some of the young victims were also encouraged to recruit other girls.