Two women jailed for trafficking woman into prostitution have sentences overturned

One Moroccan woman is acquitted at Dubai appeals court, while Syrian who ran brothel gets sentence reduced.

DUBAI // Two women who were jailed for luring a Moroccan to Dubai with promises of a job then forced her into prostitution have had their sentences overturned by Dubai Court of Appeal.

AA, a 22-year-old Moroccan woman, was sentenced to three years on charges of human trafficking by Dubai Criminal Court but she was acquitted.

Syrian RA, 28, who was convicted and sentenced to two years for running a brothel and for facilitating prostitution of Moroccan and Syrian women had her jail term reduced to one year. Both women had denied charges in court.

Records show that the Moroccan victim was told that she would get a job in a beauty salon but, when she arrived in the UAE, she was taken to a prostitution den.

After a week she was taken to a hotel, where she met a Saudi customer who paid one of the two Arab women on trial for the Moroccan woman’s services.

“I met with a Saudi customer, who paid Dh1,500,” said the victim.

“I sat with him and cried so hard and told him my story. He felt compassionate and booked me a ticket back to Morocco and even drove me to the airport.”

At the airport, she was not allowed to leave the country because her employment contract had not been cancelled, so she headed to airport police and told them the whole story.

The victim told prosecutors that she was approached by a woman in her country, who told her a job in a beauty salon was available but she needed to sign a deposit cheque of 10 million Moroccan dirhams (Dh3.8m) to have her visa processed.

“I was provided with a phone number in Dubai and arrived on January 24 last year,” said the victim.

The woman arrived to a flat in Al Nahda and was surprised to see seven Moroccan women already there.

“AA took my passport right away then told me I will be working in prostitution,” said the victim in court.

She said she and the other women were taken to a hotel where men chose which women they liked.

“They were paying Dh1,500 in return for six hours with each of the women,” said the victim, adding that for seven days she had not been chosen by any of the customers so had not had sex with anyone.

She was then taken to another hotel, which demanded the woman’s passport to allow her in. This is where she met the Saudi man.

After the victim explained all to police at the airport, AA and RA were arrested.

Policeman SA, 35, said when both the defendants were questioned they denied all charges but when they were confronted by the victim and evidence was seized from their flat, they both confessed.

“RA confessed she was prostituting women from Morocco and Syria for Dh700 — we found birth-control pills and other contraceptive means in her flat,” said SA.

However, the pair both denied the charges in criminal and appeal courts.

RA will be deported after completing her jail term.

No reason was given for AA’s acquittal.