Dubai: Five men have been jailed for five years each for conspiring with a travel agent in their homeland and forcing a woman into prostitution in Dubai.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the five Bangladeshi men of forming a group for human trafficking and selling to a police informant a Bangladeshi woman, 21, to work as a prostitute.
Prosecutors said the accused conspired with a travel agent in Bangladesh, flew in the woman, S.S, to work as a tailor in Dubai. They locked her up in a flat to force her into the sex industry.
Severely beaten
Presiding Judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi said the defendants will be deported after serving their terms.
Court records said S.S. was severely beaten by her captors and confined to a flat for four days because she resisted attempts to sexually exploit her. When they failed to force S.S. into prostitution, the defendants sold the tailor for Dh4,000 to an undercover policeman, who claimed he planned to make her work as a prostitute.
‘Persistent refusal'
All the accused, M.I., 28, M.T., 27, M.F., 32, N.W., 24, and R.M., 23, denied the charges of deceiving S.S., confining her to a flat and beating and attempting to coerce her into prostitution.
"I borrowed 150,000 taka [around Dh7,300] and paid it to the travel agent to process my visa and passport to work in Dubai as a tailor. When I arrived, R.M. and Nour picked me from the airport. They took me to a flat where other women stayed and worked as prostitutes. I was confined and beaten because they wanted me to have sex with men. I persistently refused," S.S. told prosecutors.
The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
