Thursday, September 2, 2010

A government employee allowed women to be smuggled into Dubai to work as prostitutes in return for sexual favours, a court heard.

The man worked at a checkpoint in Hatta, Dubai Court of First Instance was told. He is accused of allowing the females to cross the Oman border on fake documents in return for sex with prostitutes.

The story came to light during the trial of an Iraqi accused of trafficking three women in 2006 who are now  aged 22, 20 and 16.

The court heard the 38-year-old Iraqi and an Iraqi woman went to their home country and bought the three girls from their families, preying on their dire financial situation.

“I was 14 when my mother sold me to the couple,” the teenager said in a statement. “The man would beat me and threaten me if I refused to have sex with customers.”

The man has been charged with running a brothel, human trafficking and bribing the 30-year-old government employee, who is Emirati. The official has been charged with accepting a bribe and having affairs with sex workers.

According to a captain at Dubai Police, the Iraqi confessed in interview that he had trafficked a number of women into the country from Oman with the help of the government official.

“He claimed that he arranged a party for the official and offered for him to have sex with two women,” the captain said in his testimony.

But the three victims in this case managed to escape last June, the court heard.

“We sent our officers to find the couple and eventually caught them in a villa in Ras Al Khaimah,” the captain said.

The Iraqi defendant and the Emirati official, along with the three women, who have been charged with prostitution, appeared in the courtroom yesterday where they all pleaded not guilty to their charges.

The three girls said that they were forced by the Iraqi to have sex with customers.

“He forced us to work in this industry. He used to beat us,” one of them said.

Five other women have also been charged with prostitution in connection with the case. The Iraqi woman is currently at large. The trial has been adjourned until next month.

ali.shouk@7days.ae