UAE | Crime
Woman claims she was trafficked for $32,000
Police arrest five people on suspicion of running a brothel and rape; two suspects at large
- By Bassam Za'za', Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:00 October 16, 2009
Dubai: A Kyrgyz woman has claimed that she was sold for $32,000 (Dh118,000) before an alleged human-trafficking gang reportedly exploited her hardship and unwillingly pushed her to offer sexual services.
"A woman named Aicha claimed that she bought me for $32,000 from another woman named Fairuza. Aicha told me that I cannot return to my country unless I return that amount through having sex with pleasure seekers for money, which she eventually pocketed. Since the first day she beat and forced me to have sex with ten men," prosecutors quoted the 22-year-old Kyrgyz woman as saying.
Records said the girl, D.J., reported to a police station when one day a client stopped a taxi for her to take her to Baraha where she stayed.
Law enforcement officers are still searching for Aicha and Fairuza, who have escaped.
Meanwhile police arrested five suspects, including two Uzbek women, two Afghan men and a Pakistani carpenter, in the case.
The Public Prosecution charged the Uzbek women, 33-year-old N.T. and 38-year-old K.S., and the Afghans, 26-year-old K.N. and 28-year-old K.I., with conspiring with the escapees by sexually exploiting the girl and forcing her into prostitution.
N.T., K.S., K.N. and K.I. are charged with abetting the missing suspects, who allegedly tricked the Kyrgyz girl, and promised her that she would work as a pastry chef in Dubai. The four were also charged with pressurising D.J. to have sex with men under threat.
The Uzbek women were charged with prostitution and running a brothel in Baraha. K.I. and the carpenter were charged with raping D.J. at knifepoint.
The five defendants denied their charges and pleaded not guilty when they appeared at the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday.
Denial
K.I. and the carpenter, M.M., denied the charge of raping the girl and argued that they had consensual sex with her.
"Your honour, I am innocent. Please deport me to my country because I am sick," argued N.T. when she defended herself before Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad.
D.J. testified that the clients beat her whenever she rejected them.
"Aicha reportedly ordered the three male suspects to beat me whenever I turned down sex customers… K.I. threatened me with a knife and said that I should have sex with men so that Aicha could get back her $32,000," she said in her statement.
An Emirati anti-human trafficking policeman testified that D.J. reported to Naif police station when she ran away from the gang. "We raided the brothel and arrested all the defendants except for the escapees," said the policeman.
The court will assign lawyers to defend the suspects when it reconvenes soon.
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