Dubai: A Chinese man and his compatriot woman will spend three years in jail each for forcing two teen German sisters into prostitution.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 25-year-old Chinese man and his 40-year-old compatriot woman of running a whorehouse and forcing the German sisters, aged 14 and 16, into the sex trade.

"The defendants will be deported after the completion of their jail terms. The flat which was being run as a brothel will be shut down," Presiding Judge Fahmi Mounir Fahmi said upon pronouncing Wednesday's judgment.

The defendants pleaded not guilty when they appeared in court.

"No, I am not guilty. I didn't do any of this," argued 40-year-old Z.Z. when she defended herself.

"No it's not true," contended 25-year-old M.Y. when he pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors charged Z.Z. and M.Y. with exploiting the girls' adolescence and forced them to have sex with men against their will and under coercion.

Court records said the defendants and a woman [who remains at large] committed a human trafficking crime by abusing the fact that the girls knew nothing about the country and forced them into prostitution.

They were charged with locking the girls in a flat which they ran as a brothel.

Records said two Chinese women worked as prostitutes willingly meanwhile the Germans were forced to do so.

Z.Z. and M.Y. were also charged with failing to pay the fine for overstaying in the UAE after their visas expired.

Z.Z. confessed before the court that she worked in prostitution.

The 16-year-old German teenager, F.G., testified that in 2004 her father asked her to live with a Chinese woman named L.Y. and her son.

"In December 2009, L.Y. sent my younger sister, I.G. [who was 12 years and five months then] to have sex with a Chinese man. In February 2010, she sold me for Dh100,000 to an Indian man. He used to come have sex with me in L.Y.'s flat… and I was 15 years and 11 months then. She also made me have sex with a Chinese man. L.Y. was arrested and deported in April 2010. Later her son forced me into prostitution. In June 2010, the son handed me to Z.Z. and left the country… Z.Z. and M.Y. forced me into prostitution in a flat. My mom's friend helped me find my sister again after they separated us," F.G. claimed.

After the two sisters were reunited, according to F.G.'s statement, Z.Z. and M.Y. forcefully kept them in a flat where they coerced them to work as prostitutes.

An Emirati police major testified that the defendants were arrested in a sting operation following a tip off that they ran a brother in Al Rifaa.

The primary judgment remains subject to appeal within 15 days.