Dubai: A jobless man has been accused of selling a maid to another man for Dh3,000 to work as a masseuse shortly after he helped her abscond from her sponsor.
The 35-year-old Bangladeshi defendant, A.B., was said to have deceived his 26-year-old countrywoman and talked her into absconding from her Emirati sponsor in Ras Al Khaimah.
According to prosecution records, the maid had only been working for the sponsor for a few months before she met A.B. through her co-worker.
The defendant was said to have convinced the two maids to run away from their sponsor.
He picked them up in June and brought them to an apartment in Dubai.
Prosecutors accused A.B. of committing a human trafficking crime by luring the 26-year-old woman and then selling her to another person to massage men and perform indecent activities in a massage centre.
When the defendant showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance, he entered a not guilty plea.
According to the charge sheet, the suspect exploited the maid’s weakness by convincing her that he would get her work as a maid for Dh2,000 before selling her to work as a masseuse.
Records said the Emirati sponsor was paying the woman a Dh600 salary.
“No, I am not guilty. I did not cheat her or have her work in any dirty job,” argued A.B. when he defended himself before presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi.
The maid testified to prosecutors that after the defendant helped her and her co-worker abscond, they stayed in several flats in Sharjah and Dubai. She alleged that they had to move in and out of different flats every few days.
“He helped me work in different housekeeping jobs on an hourly basis. We shared a flat with a number of men and women. The suspect did not bring men to have sex with the women who lived at the flat, but those who lived there slept with each other. However he forced me to have sex with him over a period of time… I had no choice. He beat me when I refused to have sex with him. Then he took me to a massage place and handed me to the manager. The latter wanted me to wear enticing clothes and massage clients… but I refused,” she claimed.
Records said the defendant was arrested in a sting operation.
“I was told by the police that the defendant had agreed with the massage centre’s supervisor to sell me for Dh3,000 and have me engage in indecent activities,” she claimed to prosecutors.
A police captain at Dubai Police’ anti-human trafficking department testified that an informant alerted them that the suspect had intended to exploit the maid sexually. The defendant was arrested in a sting operation in Al Nahda.
The trial continues.
