Dubai: Two men and a woman have been jailed for five years each for 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 contacted by her 27-year-old countrywoman by phone and she 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 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 bringing her to Dubai where the 27-year-old woman housed her in a flat in Naif area.
After reaching Dubai when the girl was told that she would be working as a prostitute instead of a dancer, she refused to do so and demanded to be send back home. But once girl was told that she had to pay Dh18,000 to those, who had brought her to Dubai, she agreed to work as a prostitute.
Dubai Police’s anti-human trafficking department freed the girl following an informant’s tip off 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 and pose as a client as a part of the sting operation. Police raided the apartment and apprehended the housewife and a 25-year-old Pakistani woman visitor and the two men, 32 and 38.
On Monday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the two male defendants and the 27-year-old woman on the charges of human trafficking, sexually abusing the teenager and forcing her into a prostitution. They were also found guilty of running a brothel.
Presiding judge Urfan Omar jailed them for five years and fined them Dh20,000 each.
The 25-year-old woman visitor was jailed for three years for working as a prostitute.
According the primary ruling, the four defendants will be deported after serving their jail terms.
The defendants pleaded not guilty in court.
The girl said 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 to work as a prostitute. Two defendants, a male and a female, used to bring clients and give the proceeds to the 32-year-old suspect,” the girl said.
A police corporal testified that the defendants were apprehended in a sting operation at the flat.
Records said two more suspects remain at large.
The ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
