Asian gang charged with human trafficking

Sohaila Ahmed, Ehab Atta, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Public Prosecution referred a gang of six Asians to Criminal Court, on charges of human trafficking and promoting prostitution.

Investigations revealed that the 6th suspect deceived the victim and lured her into the UAE to work as a maid, using the victim’s need of money. The suspect managed to get a visa for the underage victim, who was received at the airport by another suspect, and was directly taken to an apartment.

The victim was held against her will and coerced into prostitution; however, she insisted to work as a maid as she was promised and was taken by a suspect to a family house to work there.

After she ended her first month, the victim learned that the suspect had received her salary from the family, but when she asked him about it, he said he would not give the money unless she agrees on working in the brothel.

The victim was forced to listen to them and returned to the brothel, until she was caught by police.

An officer stated that the informer working with police had convinced the gang that an Arab man wanted to spend some time at the brothel. The man paid Dhs 50 to one of the suspects and was given four different women to choose from, including the victim. After which, the apartment was immediately raided by police and suspects were taken into custody.

In a separate event, the Dubai Criminal Court on Wednesday looked into the case of a 36-year-old Arab national charged with owning and facilitating the abuse of the drug known as Crystal for three of his Asian friends, who were charged with abusing drugs.

Forensic reports affirmed that narcotic drugs were found in the samples of the three suspected girls.

The main suspect admitted to giving the girls cigarettes and narcotic pills while they were all in a high-end Dubai based hotel.

On being questioned by the public prosecution, the first suspect said the main suspect gave her a cigarette wrapped in tin which she did not know it contained hashish.

The second suspect denied her abusing drugs, while the third admitted that she consumed Crystal. Another girl testified that her friend fainted due to the drug abuse, and when they asked the main suspect to take her to the hospital, he refused.

A Dubai police sergeant said they received information about a drug consumption party in a hotel in Dubai, which resulted in a fainting girl.

He added they rushed to the scene, where the Arab suspect was arrested, owning a bag containing narcotic drugs.