Two who forced underage sisters into prostitution get three years

They kidnapped and sold the girls, ages 12 and 16, prosecutors said.

DUBAI // Two people were sentenced to three years in prison each this morning for their roles in a prostitution ring that imprisoned two sisters, ages 12 and 16, in Al Rafaa area.

ZZ, a 40-year-old female Chinese visitor, and MY, 25, a Chinese carpenter, denied running the operation and confining the two German girls, coercing them into having sex for money.

Records say they, along with a third person who is at large, imprisoned the two girls in a flat in the Al Rafaa area and prostituted them to strangers.

Both ZZ and MY are also accused of overstaying their visas in the country and failing to pay related fees to the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department. Additionally, ZZ is accused of working in prostitution; she admitted to those charges.

Prosecutors said that in 2004, the victims' father met a Chinese woman, LY, in Umm Al Qaiwain. She later became a close friend. He asked her to take his daughters to Dubai to live with her, and she did so, although the exact date was not presented in court documents.

LY, who remains at large, forced the girls into prostitution in 2009, prosecutors said. In 2010, the 12-year-old was sold for Dh100,000 to an Indian man who had previously paid to have sex with her, according to court records.

The older girl was taken to a different apartment, prosecutors said. Both girls were beaten, locked up, and forced into sex, the charges said.

On June 22, 2010, the older girl escaped and fled to Ajman to search for a friend of her mother's, according to records. She told prosecutors she also wanted to find her sister.

After discovering the phone number of the man who bought her sister, she called and arranged a meeting in Deira.

But when she arrived, she was kidnapped and imprisoned by ZZ and MY, according to records. The older girl said ZZ was running the ring and working as a prostitute along with two other women, while MY was in charge of securing the apartment and providing customers in return for a monthly salary of Dh2,500.