A man who trafficked a girl desperate to earn money to pay for life-saving surgery for her father will see out his five-year jail term.
Police arrested the 36-year-old Indian on July 1 last year at a hotel room in Naif after he offered the teenager to a policeman posing as a customer.
The man denied charges of human trafficking and running a prostitution business in both Dubai Criminal Court and Dubai Court of Appeal but was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison followed by deportation.
The 15-year-old Pakistani girl told the court her mother was dead and her father needed open-heart surgery at cost of more than two million rupees (Dh70,300).
She said her cousin in Dubai advised her to travel to the emirate and work to earn the money.
She said her cousin made an arrangement with the defendant and another man, who is at large, to forge a passport listing the her age as 23, instead of 15.
According to court records, the teen arrived in Dubai in January last year and was told she would work as a waitress but was convinced to prostitute herself instead to make more money and help treat her father.
She said her cousin was willingly working as a prostitute and the defendant and other man were running the business and collecting money from customers.
During questioning, prosecutors said the Indian man admitted to luring the girl to the UAE but said his accomplice was the mastermind.
"He [the accomplice] offered me to provide him with customers in return for Dh50 for each customer but I didn't bring this girl and I didn't know she was so young," the man said.
He said his role involved showing pictures of women to customers and then calling the other man to complete the arrangement.
He will be deported after serving his sentence.
