Dubai: A maid lost her appeal and will spend five years in jail for bringing her 15-year-old relative to Dubai, confining her in a flat and forcing her into prostitution.

The Bangladeshi maid and her two countrymen, aged 34 and 27, forged papers and travel documents in which they showed the girl’s age as 25 to be able to fly her to Oman from Bangladesh.

They then smuggled her and other girls by car from Oman to Dubai, locked her up in a flat and made her work in the sex trade.

In December, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Bangladeshi maid and her two countrymen of sexually exploiting the teenaged girl, forging her travel documents and using the forged documents. They were also found guilty of running a brothel in a flat. The woman defendant was also convicted of working in prostitution.

The culprits were also fined Dh100,000 each.

The woman and the 27-year-old defendant appealed the primary rulings before the Appeal Court and sought to have a reduced punishment.

Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm rejected the duo’s appeal and confirmed their five-year imprisonment. The defendants, who pleaded not guilty, will also have to pay a Dh100,000 fine each.

The other male defendant did not appeal the primary ruling since he was sentenced in absentia.

The convicts will be deported after honouring their penalties, said presiding judge Bin Sarm.

The teenager is the stepdaughter of the maid’s sister.

Dubai Police’s anti-human trafficking department was alerted by an informant about a flat being used as a brothel in Freej Al Marar.

When police raided the flat, they found the teenager, the maid, three prostitutes and the 27-year-old accused.

The man pleaded not guilty.

The maid argued before the appellate court that it was the male defendant — who remains at large — who ran the brothel in the flat and forced the girls into prostitution.

“I only lived there and worked as a prostitute,” she said.

The teenager said she was promised work as a maid in Dubai.

“My mother died 10 years ago and my father married the female defendant’s sister. When my dad fell ill, my stepmother called up her sister [the defendant] and asked her to help me find a job in Dubai. My stepmother borrowed money from our neighbours and the defendants arranged for a forged passport to help me fly to Oman. When I reached Dubai, I was kept in a flat and forced into prostitution. I also learnt from the other prostitutes that the absconder had sent money to my family. One day, the flat supervisor saw a number of men on the CCTV cameras coming towards the door … she asked us to hide. Police then freed me and arrested everyone else,” testified the 15-year-old.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court.