Facebook gang jailed for sexual exploitation

Dubai: Four Filipinas and their male compatriot, who formed a human trafficking ring using Facebook and lured girls into prostitution, were handed different jail terms on Wednesday.

The Dubai Court of First Instance jailed one of the Filipinas, identified as J.S., to five years in jail while the remaining defendants were jailed for three years each.

Presiding judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi said the five accused will be deported after serving their prison terms.

The Filipina defendants, aged between 24 and 39, and their 23-year-old male compatriot, P.A., were said to have communicated on Facebook with other Filipinas and promised to have them hired as saleswomen, waitresses or cleaners in Dubai.

The defendants were then said to have confiscated the women’s passports, confined them in different places, exploited them sexually and coerced them to have sex with strangers.

Records said the victims were beaten and threatened with harm before they were compelled to satisfy sex clients.

The defendants pleaded not guilty and denied the accusations.

Prosecutors said the defendants committed a human trafficking crime along with a number of suspects, who remain at large.

Prosecution records said one of the four female defendants communicated on Facebook with the women. She promised to hire those women in shopping malls or restaurants.

The defendants would then seize their passports as soon as they arrived, then force them into the sex industry.

The defendants were charged with sexually exploiting five women, aged between 21 and 30, and threatening to beat them if they refused to work in prostitution.

Three of the female defendants confessed to working as prostitutes when they appeared in court.

A 25-year-old woman said she became friends with one of the suspects.

“We chatted on Facebook. She said she would hire me as a saleswoman. I paid 50,000 pesos (Dh4,506) to a 50-year-old man in Manila… he got me a visa. When I arrived, they took me to a flat. I was surprised when they asked me to work in prostitution. I refused to sleep with my first client… then I was obliged to yield to their coercion,” claimed the 25-year-old.

Court records said the four other victims faced the same ordeal.

An Emirati policeman said the defendants were arrested in a sting operation shortly after the victims reported what happened to them to Al Muraqqabat police station.

Wednesday’s judgement remains subject to appeal within 15 days.