Court upholds jail term for man in prostitution case

Dubai: A court has upheld a 10-year jail sentence against an unemployed visitor who sexually exploited a penniless housemaid by forcing her to sleep with 20 men in one day for money.

The Dubai Court of Appeal confirmed the initial verdict against the 25-year- old Bangladeshi accused, A.H.

The Court of First Instance had convicted him on a charge of violating the Human Trafficking Law No. 51, of 2006. He forced a 28-year-old Filipina maid, L.K., to sleep with different men for money, which he pocketed.

The Public Prosecution charged the accused and a number of unidentified suspects of committing a human trafficking crime.

He was charged with beating, threatening and forcing L.K. into prostitution after locking her up in a flat which he rented for that purpose. He also forced a 22-year-old compatriot woman, B.A., to work in the sex industry

The court sentenced B.A. to one year in prison for prostitution.

The Filipina victim testified: "I came to work here as a housemaid. Instead, the accused detained me in a flat where he forced me to sleep with five or six men a day for Dh50 each. One day I was forced to sleep with twenty men without getting a penny for myself. He took away the money. They forced me and other girls to have sex with men in different flats." She said one of the other girls helped her go to the police to report the crime.