Woman Sold Twice, Pushed into Flesh Trade
>> Thursday, October 15, 2009
A woman was allegedly lured to the UAE on a job offer, sold twice and forced into prostitution by a racket run by five arrested persons and two absconding women, the Court of First Instance heard on Thursday.
The defendants in custody — two Uzbek women (visitors), two Afghan men (unemployed) and a Pakistani watchman — pleaded not guilty in the court to the charges of human trafficking and running a brothel.
The two women are also accused of indulging in prostitution while one Afghan and the Pakistani are also accused of raping the complainant.
A Kyrgyz woman and another woman whose nationality is not known have absconded and are being tried in absentia on human trafficking charge.
One of them is accused of selling the Kyrgyz woman to the other absconder, who allegedly sold the complainant to one of the arrested defendants.
According to the case, the 22-year-old Kyrgyz woman was offered the job of a pastry chef with $700 monthly salary by a compatriot woman, a visit visa, flight ticket and accommodation in Dubai, according to her statement to the police. When she arrived in Dubai on April 28, a woman other than the one who offered her the job was waiting for her. When she enquired about her woman acquaintance, she was told that she had sold her for $32,000.
“The woman (whose nationality is not known) who picked me up from the airport told me that I belonged to her from then and that I should settle her the money which she had paid to buy me. I could go back to my country only then,” she told the police.
The woman who bought her told her that she had to work as a prostitute to pay her dues. “When I said no, she beat me up,” the Kyrgyz said.
“I was forced to have sex with 10 men the first day. They beat me on provocation from that woman when I refused to have sex with them.”
The Kyrgyz alleged that the woman told the men to tame her. One of the Afghan men threatened her with a knife which he placed on her neck.
“He threatened he would kill me. He said the woman had paid lots of money on me and I should work in prostitution to pay her back,” she said, claiming that the same man raped her.
The other Afghan defendant burned her hands with cigarettes and threatened her that she would die if she did not do as they said. Even the women members of the racket used to assault her if she resisted.
One day, she was told that the Pakistani defendant would be her boyfriend. “That man said that he had paid Dh500 to have sex with me. He raped me which caused bleeding. He raped me twice even after I bled,” the complainant said.
On May 2, the ‘boyfriend’ put the complainant in a cab and paid the driver asking him to drive her to his place. As the driver saw assault marks on her face and upon her request for help, he took her to the Kyrgyz consulate. From there, she was brought to the Naif police station.
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