First 'forced servitude' charges in trafficking case

Dubai attorney general's office says this is the first time anyone has been accused of the crime under human trafficking laws.

DUBAI // Prosecutors today for the first time filed a charge of forcing servitude in the case of four men accused of being human traffickers.

Three women, according to prosecutors, were forced to work in a massage parlor and provide sexual favors to men while they were held in captivity by the defendants. They were forced to commit

“grotesque” acts, prosecutors said.

The Dubai attorney general's office said in a statement today that two of the defendants have been detained and two others remain at large. The suspects were not identified.

“The defendants have been charged with human trafficking by the means of forced servitiude. We are pursuing the harshest punishment by the criminal court for them,” said Essam al Humaidan, Dubai attorney general.