Dubai - Six of accused were sentenced to seven years in prison, while one defendant was jailed for a year.
Published: Mon 24 Aug 2020, 2:31 PM
Updated: Mon 24 Aug 2020, 9:49 PM
Seven people have been jailed after the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted them of various charges including human trafficking.
The court earlier heard that a 23-year-old Pakistani man and two Indonesian women hosted a nanny, also Indonesian, at their flat in Dubai after promising her a job.
However, she was later sold for Dh3,500 to the main accused, a 37-year-old Bangladeshi, to be forced into prostitution.
She was locked up in a room at a villa. The main accused and three other Bangladeshis, including two fugitives, were accused of running the villa room as a prostitution den.
Six of accused were sentenced to seven years in prison, while one defendant was jailed for a year. They will all be deported at the end of their prison terms.
The incident happened between October 25 and November 1 last year and was reported at Al Muraqqabat police station. The nanny, a 30-year-old, said she arrived in the UAE on February 2 last year and worked for a family for some time but later quit.
During the investigation, the nanny recalled the ordeal she went through after a woman of her nationality introduced her to another woman who knew the defendants. "I was made to believe that I would work for a family in Sharjah. But I learned later that I was sold to a man, who kept me a prisoner in a villa where there were prostitutes.
"I begged them to return me to that woman but the main accused insisted I work for him, saying he bought me for Dh 4,000."
She refused to obey him and abstained from eating. She became ill and tired. Eventually, she managed to contact her sister, who helped her call the police after she shared her location on WhatsApp.
A police lieutenant told the prosecutor that the victim's sister made the complaint.
"She told us that her sister was being held captive at a villa in Al Hamriyah, Al Muraqqabat, to be forced into prostitution. We raided the villa after obtaining a public prosecution warrant. We freed the captive woman and arrested the accused."
The room was found to be partitioned, with a surveillance camera at its door.
The court ruling can be appealed.
mary@khaleejtimes.com
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