German woman covered in fresh bruises

A young German woman police say was held captive and abused for years by a Bosnian couple was found hiding in the woods, covered in fresh bruises and old scars, prosecutors said Monday. Police arrested a Roma couple, Milenko and Slavojka Marinkovic, at their home in the northeast Bosnian hamlet of Karavlasi after getting a tip-off on May 17 that they were keeping a young woman locked up and had forced her to eat pig feed and pull them on a horse-cart. The "young woman was found in the woods near the Marinkovic's property," local prosecution spokesman Admir Arnautovic told AFP. "She was really disoriented, scared, with visible injuries on her body. She had a lot old scars but also a lot of fresh bruises on her legs, arms and head," he said. The Bosnian authorities put the woman, identified by family members as 19-year-old German Bettina Siegner, in a safe house, where she underwent medical examinations. Prosecutors are trying to confirm the girl's name in both Bosnia and Germany as she had no identity documents, Arnautovic said. She was exposed to physical abuse but no evidence was found of sexual abuse, he said, adding that police estimated the maltreatment had gone on for about eight years. Local media reported that the woman arrived in Bosnia from Germany with her mother in 2004 and that her mother may have entered into a sham marriage with Milenko Marinkovic to allow him to obtain a German residency permit. The mother, Christine Siegner, who lived between Karavlasi and Germany for several years and was in the village at the time of the arrests, has been questioned as a witness. A neighbor who raised the alarm told AFP he witnessed the couple treating the young woman like an animal. But her mother and Marinkovic's brother denied any mistreatment. e t