Gang who forced girl into prostitution jailed for 10 years each

The Bangladeshi teenager’s ordeal came to an end only when Dubai Police raided brothel

A Dubai court has granted a retrial to an Emirati man who was convicted of causing his friend’s death in a Shisha fire. AFP

Dubai Criminal Court on Wednesday jailed a gang of six Bangladeshis for 10 years each for forcing a girl, 16, into prostitution.

They trafficked her into the country and tried to make her work in a brothel. When she refused, she was raped, the court heard.

The Bangladeshi teenager’s ordeal came to an end only when Dubai Police raided the brothel.

Judges heard how a female defendant, 36, offered the orphaned girl a maid’s job in the UAE.

Two other defendants, both male, forged the teenager’s passport to make her look older.

When she arrived in the country, she was taken to an apartment in Dubai’s Karama district.

At the flat, she was told she had to work as a prostitute. She refused and was beaten and raped.

For the next two weeks, the girl was locked up in a different apartment where two defendants took turns to rape her.

“They forced me to have sex with five to sex men per day until the flat was raided by police,” she told the court.

Dubai Police were tipped off about the girl and assigned two officers to work undercover. They put the apartment under surveillance, raided the brothel and detained the gang.

The defendants, all from Bangladesh, aged between 22 and 48, were convicted of human trafficking, rape, running a brothel and facilitating prostitution.

They have two weeks to appeal.