Workers on trial for locking women in flat

Dubai: Two workers are standing trial for keeping three women locked up in a flat against their will and threatening to kill them if they refused to work as prostitutes, on Thursday.

A policeman, who posed as a pleasure seeker, contacted one of the two Indian suspects, who walked him into a villa in Al Hamriya where the girls were kept. The policeman freed the girls and arrested the men.

The Public Prosecution charged the Indian workers, 24-year-old J.J. and 27-year-old E.A., along with a third suspect, who is at large, with keeping the Bangladeshi housemaids, R.A., A.J. and J.A., against their will in the villa, assaulting them, and forcing them to work in prostitution. They were charged with running the villa as a brothel.

The suspects pleaded innocent before Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.

The 30-year-old R.A. said she worked for an Emirati sponsor in Al Ain for almost a year and a half before she absconded because she didn't receive her salary.

"I met an elderly taxi driver in a bus stop in Dubai and asked him to help me find a job ... he took me to a villa where E.A. received me and took me inside. They locked me up with the other two girls and forced me to have sex with an Indian man. They threatened to beat or kill us if we refused. A.J. and J.A. told me they were brought to the villa 24 hours prior to my arrival," she told the Public Prosecution.