German girl ‘enslaved’ by Bosnian couple

A Bosnian couple enslaved a German girl, now 19, for eight years, starving and beating her.

According to BBC News, the girl was found in a forest near the town of Kalesija. Prosecutors said she had been forbidden to meet people and was not allowed to attend school. Police arrested the couple in Bosnia's Tuzla region after being tipped off by neighbors.

BBC also reported that Milenko Marinkovic, 52, and his wife Slavojka, 45, were arrested May 17 on suspicion of treating the girl inhumanely.

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Neighbor Cazim Makalic once witnessed Marinkovic harness the teenager to a horse cart and force her to pull it with him and his friend sitting inside while he whipped her, reported Reuters.

"I could not watch them beat and starve her anymore," he said.

The girl weighed just 40 kg (88 lbs) when she was found, according to BBC. The couple had allegedly tried to hide her from authorities.

Reuters reported that the 19-year-old's mother had once been married to Marinkovic, although he wasn't the girl's father. Her mother, who has been interrogated by police as a witness, still lives in the same hamlet where the girl was found and told reporters who tried to speak with her to go away.