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Sweden's 'most wanted' arrested in Slovakia

David Landes
David Landes - [email protected]
Sweden's 'most wanted' arrested in Slovakia

One of Sweden's most wanted fugitives, who escaped from prison in August 2010, has been arrested in southern Slovakia, according to local police.

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In January, 2010, Miroslav Horvath, 40, was convicted of human trafficking, as well as assault and aggravated theft, and received a prison sentence of two years and nine months.

But in August 2010, Horvath escaped from prison and has been on the run ever since.

Earlier this week, however, Horvath was apprehended in the city of Surany in southern Slovakia, according to a statement from Slovak police.

Horvath is one of several fugitives featured in the Aftonbladet newspaper on Thursday in a report about Sweden's Ikaros list, considered to be Sweden's 'most-wanted' list of criminals.

Police in Sweden confirmed for The Local on Friday that Horvath had indeed been arrested and has since been removed from the Ikaros list, explaining that the Ikaros list featured in Aftonbladet had been put together just before Horvath's arrest.

Horvath had been wanted on a European arrest warrant issued in May 2011 and according to Slovak police, his case was a “high priority”.

Slovak police said that Horvath was aware that he was a wanted man and had thus kept on the move, changing addresses in an effort to stay one step ahead of police.

But police caught up with Horvath while he was having lunch at a restaurant in Surany when a team of officers raided the establishment and placed him under arrest.

At first, Horvath claimed to be someone else, but eventually confessed before being brought to a police station the town of Nitra where he is now awaiting extradition.

Horevath was one of three men convicted in Sweden in January 2010 for their roles in a sex trafficking scheme in which a 17-year-old girl was forced to sell sex to several men in Skåne in southern Sweden.

The 17-year-old girl, a native of Slovakia, grew up under impoverished circumstances before being thrown out by her father. Soon thereafter she met up with 26-year-old Karol Rafael, a member of the local mafia, who offered her a place to stay, the Expressen newspaper reported at the time.

After two weeks at the German brothel, the 17-year-old was then taken to Denmark to sell herself on the streets before then being brought to Sweden by Horvath.

The girl eventually escaped after she happened to tell her story to a Slovak-speaker who turned out to be her last customer.

Upon hearing that the teen was being forced to sell sex against her will, he promptly took her to the local police station.

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