Five convicted of human trafficking

DUBAI // Four men and a woman from Bangladesh were sentenced to one to five years this morning for locking up a woman against her will and forcing her into prostitution. 

The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance convicted AS, SA, and their female compatriot RA of confining her, beating her and coercing her into having sex for money.

Two other suspects, MH and AM, both unemployed, were sentenced to one year in prison for facilitating prostitution and abetting AS in running a brothel. 

Court records showed AS lured the victim into the country after speaking to her husband in Bangladesh, whom he told he had arranged a maid job for the victim.

The woman was taken from the airport and sent to AS' house, where RA kept her locked up and informed her she would be working in prostitution, records said. 

According to records the victim managed to call her husband and asked him to get her back home. He spoke to SA, who demanded 60,000 Bangladeshi taka to send her back. 

The victim's husband did not have the money but gave his wife the number of a friend in Dubai and told her to escape and call the friend.

After running away, she took a taxi to the Muraqqabat police station, which dispatched officers to arrest the suspects. 

salamir@thenational.ae