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03-20-2005, 02:22 PM
A former Olympic wrestler from Azerbaijan forced women from his homeland to work as prostitutes in Brooklyn, authorities charged yesterday.
At least one of the sex slaves imported by Asker Mammedov was only 16, authorities said.
Mammedov, 31, who represented his country in the 1996 and 2000 Games, was arraigned in federal court yesterday. He denied the charges and was ordered held without bail.
Prosecutors charged that the squat, broad-shouldered former Olympian lured at least three women to New York since 2003, promising them jobs at legitimate massage parlors.
Instead they allegedly were forced into sexual servitude at a brothel on E. 12th St. in Brooklyn. Mammedov kept the women from running away by beating them and threatening to hurt their relatives, authorities said.
At least one of the sex slaves imported by Asker Mammedov was only 16, authorities said.
Mammedov, 31, who represented his country in the 1996 and 2000 Games, was arraigned in federal court yesterday. He denied the charges and was ordered held without bail.
Prosecutors charged that the squat, broad-shouldered former Olympian lured at least three women to New York since 2003, promising them jobs at legitimate massage parlors.
Instead they allegedly were forced into sexual servitude at a brothel on E. 12th St. in Brooklyn. Mammedov kept the women from running away by beating them and threatening to hurt their relatives, authorities said.