DUBAI // Three women and a man were sentenced to prison today for luring a female visitor, locking her up and forcing her into prostitution.
The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced ZM, 44, a visitor, and ST, a 30-year-old nanny, both Pakistanis, to 10 years in prison followed by deportation for human trafficking.
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MF, the only male defendant, 28, also Pakistani, will spend six months in prison for deceiving the victim. He got her to come to Dubai after promising her a job at a beauty salon, but after she arrived, ZM and ST beat her, locked her up and forced her into the sex trade. He will be deported following his prison term.
SP, 26, from India, will spend six months in prison before being deported for her role in marketing the victim to customers and for working as a prostitute herself.
According to records, the 31-year-old victim was approached by a woman who knew ST, and was told that ST could find her a good job in Dubai.
When the victim, also Pakistani, arrived in Dubai on December 31, she was taken from Dubai International Airport to an apartment near the Marco Polo Hotel in Deira, her testimony shows.
She said two Pakistani women and a Russian woman worked as prostitutes there. She noted that she heard SP tell someone over the phone that she had a new girl for Dh100 per hour.
The victim said a man came and raped her, and then SP beat her because she refused to have sex with the man. She said she spent three days at the apartment and was raped by more than five men.
Then she was moved to another apartment in Al Baraha and forced to have sex with more men, records said.
On January 7, she was taken to a villa. She said that she started writing "help me" notes and throwing them out the window, and after a few days police raided the villa and arrested everyone, records show.
Records show that passers-by saw the notes and called police.
salamir@thenational.ae