Dubai: A woman and two men have been jailed for three years each for running a brothel. They were however acquitted of exploiting the neediness of two girls and coercing them into prostitution.

The two Bangladeshi girls, both aged under 18, were lured with offers of jobs as maids with attractive salaries and reportedly had their ages falsified in the passports to be able to fly to Dubai where they were locked up in a flat in Naif and forced to work as prostitutes in April 2016.

The Bangladeshi woman, her 26-year-old countryman and the 46-year-old Indian businessman were said to have flown the girls out of Bangladesh [through one of their acquaintances], brought them to Dubai, confiscated their passports once they arrived at the airport and took them to the flat in Naif.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the trio of running the flat as a brothel and jailed each of them for three years.

Presiding judge Urfan Omar however cleared the trio of human trafficking charge by coercing the girls to have sex with strangers for money.

Records said the girls were asked to pay nearly Dh600 to process new passports with ages falsified to be able to come and work in Dubai as maids for a salary of Dh1,200.

The 46-year-old Indian was also fined Dh52,000 for possessing 12 bottles of alcohol and hiring the 26-year-old to work for him, although the latter was on someone else’s sponsorship.

According to Monday’s ruling, the 26-year-old defendant was jailed for two months for working for a different sponsor and overstaying in the country without paying the required fines [for staying illegally].

“The flat will be shut down for good and remain sealed and cannot be upon except after obtaining prosecutors’ permission to reopen it for legal purposes. The three defendants will be deported following the completion of their punishments,” said presiding judge Omar.

According to the primary ruling, the trio were acquitted of exploiting the girls’ poverty and need for money for sexual benefits and coercing them to work in prostitution due to lack of corroborated evidence.

The Bangladeshi woman was sentenced in absentia since she remains at large.

The male defendants pleaded not guilty.

One of the girls told prosecutors she is uneducated and her desperate need for money to pay for her father’s medicines made her agree to come to Dubai and work as a maid.

“I divorced four months before coming to Dubai. I had met someone called Naim and he convinced me to come and work here … I paid him money to get a new passport issued with a new age after he told me that I was too young to be allowed to travel. A woman welcomed me at the airport and she took me to a car. The [Indian] businessman drove the car to a flat … they took away my passport. They locked me there for a few days before they said I had to work in prostitution. The woman defendant was also present in the flat and she told me that she was married and worked in prostitution. I worked as a prostitute after they enticed me to do so and because I needed the money. They paid me Dh2,300 as salary,” she testified.

An anti-human trafficking police officer claimed the defendants were arrested after the police raided the flat following an informant’s tipoff.

Monday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.