Housewife accused of human trafficking

The judgment in case involving two women who crawled into a police station bleeding has been deferred after a court could not reach a verdict yesterday.

DUBAI // The judgment in a human trafficking case involving two women, who officers said crawled into the Naif police station bleeding from alleged physical abuse, has been deferred until next week after a court could not reach a verdict yesterday. In addition to a trafficking charge RA, 26, a Bangladeshi housewife, is also accused of being a procurer in the case at the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance. She will hear her verdict on Monday.

Two other suspects, identified as NH and MO, both from Bangladesh, have also been charged. An anti-human trafficking officer told the court that when he saw the two women in May of last year they said they had been flown into Dubai, forced into prostitution and beaten. The Bangladeshi women, identified as NB and LB, said that nude pictures of them were taken and that their captors threatened to publish them if they disobeyed orders.

The women told investigators that they were contracted to work in Dubai as housemaids. They alleged that they were picked up at the airport by the three suspects. "We were taken to a house at the Hamriya district of Deira and were forced into prostitution," NB said. "They beat us when we resisted and kept us locked in the villa." RA was arrested on July 18 after officers raided her home. Prosecutors requested that the court issue the maximum punishment, a 15-year jail sentence.