Dubai: Four men have strongly refuted the charge of forming an organised human trafficking gang and sexually exploiting a housemaid, who accused them of forcing her into the sex trade.

Prosecutors accused the four Bangladeshi men of cheating the Indonesian housemaid after promising her a better-paid job as a waitress and then exploiting her situation by forcing her into prostitution.

Prosecution records said the defendants, 31-year-old salesman N.Z., and three workers, A.S., M.S. and M.J., tried to sell the housemaid, W.K., 26, to a police informant in a bid to get rid of her.

The four suspects strongly denied charges brought against them and pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday. According to the arraignment sheet, prosecutors charged the defendants with employing a female accomplice [who is at large] to convince the housemaid to abscond from her Emirati sponsor by offering her a higher-paid job as a waitress. Then they took her to a flat where they locked her up and forced her to entertain other men against her will.

Confined against her will

N.Z., A.S. and M.S. were charged with threatening and coercing W.K. to stay in the flat against her will. The salesman alone was charged with running a brothel in the flat.

A.S. and M.S. were jointly charged with aiding and abetting N.Z. in running the brothel.

The 26-year-old Indonesian testified that she was lured, along with her colleague, to abscond from her sponsor's house and go to work as a waitress.

"We ran away from our sponsor's house at 4am with an Indonesian woman called Maleeka… we stayed at her place, where N.Z. and A.S. lived also. My colleague and I were told that we will be working in the sex trade. They kept us unfed until I almost starved to death. They locked us behind closed doors and beat and compelled us to have sex with men. Maleeka told me later that they sold my colleague for Dh5,500 to a Bangladeshi person to work in prostitution," alleged the claimant.

An Emirati first policeman testified that an informant alerted the anti-human trafficking police that the suspects wanted to sell W.K. for Dh5,000.

The four men were arrested in a sting operation in Al Baraha area.