Dubai: Two men and two women have been accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl by bringing her to Dubai to work as a dancer and forcing her into prostitution.
The Pakistani girl was said to have been contacted by her 27-year-old countrywoman by phone and convinced her to work as a dancer at a nightclub in Dubai in January.
Once the teenager showed interest in the offer, a 32-year-old Pakistani clerk and his friend visited the teenager’s stepfather, according to records, in Pakistan and made him agree to allow her to work as a dancer in Dubai.
The clerk assisted the teenager in processing her travel papers and then brought her to Dubai where the 27-year-old woman welcomed her and housed her at a flat in Naif.
When the girl was told that she would be working as a prostitute instead of a dance, she refused to do so and demanded to be send back home.
Once girl was told that she had to pay Dh18,000 to those, who had brought her to Dubai, records said, she agreed to work as a prostitute.
The girl was recovered after Dubai Police’s anti-human trafficking department was told by an informant that the girl was being forced to work as a prostitute in an apartment that was being run as a brothel.
Dubai police tasked the informant to visit the apartment as a client to have sex with the girl as a part of the sting operation. Records said that police raided the apartment and apprehended two women, aged 27 and 25, and two men, aged 32 and 38.
Prosecutors charged the two men and the 27-year-old woman of sexually abusing the teenager and forcing her into prostitution and running a brothel.
The 25-year-old woman suspect was accused of working in prostitution.
The suspects pleaded not guilty when they appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.
The girl told prosecutors that her stepfather agreed to send her to work as a dancer in a nightclub.
“They changed my age in the passport to arrange my travel documents for coming to Dubai. When I reached Dubai, I was told that I will be working as a prostitute and not as a dancer. When I refused to do so, they told me that they would bar me from contacting my family back home and that I had to pay Dh18,000 that they alleged to have paid for bringing me to Dubai. On this I had to agree and work in prostitution. Two suspects, a male and a female, used to bring clients and give the proceeds to the 32-year-old suspect,” the girl told prosecutors.
A police corporal told prosecutors that the four suspects were apprehended in a sting operation at the flat that was being run as a brothel.
Records said two more suspects remain at large.
Presiding judge Urfan Omar said the court will appoint lawyers to defend the suspects when it reconvenes on June 7.
