Ras Al Khaimah
Seven Asian people, including five women and two men, were referred to a court in Ras Al Khaimah on charges of human trafficking. The Criminal Court in Ras Al Kaimah started hearing the case on Wednesday, a judiciary official told Gulf News on Friday.
Presiding Judge Ahmad Osama Al Rabi’a has set a date next week to hear the testimony of the defendants, officials said
The case dates back to May 23 when the anti-human-trafficking section at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Ras Al Khaimah Police arrested the gang members for alleged involvement in a prostitution racket.
The arrests were made after authorities received a tip-off about the gang’s activities, a senior police official said yesterday.
Colonel Salem Sultan Al Darmaki, director of the CID, said the department received information about some Asian women working as prostitutes.
Investigations revealed that a female manager of a nightclub in the emirate was forcing the women to work as prostitutes.
The female manager was exploiting the women, Al Darmaki said. Police raided an apartment and rounded up two women and two men. He said the women told police that they had been forced by their manager into prostitution.
The female manager told the women they had to pay her if they wanted to go back to their home country.
The police kept a watch on the manager of the nightclub and arrested her in Fujairah in cooperation with Fujairah police, Al Darmaki said.
The two women detained during the apartment raid will be sent to the human trafficking shelter for victims of crime and the case transferred to authorities to complete the rest of the legal proceedings, Al Darmaki added.
