The Court of First Instance also ordered that the men pay a Dh100,000 ($27,221) fine each.
Two men and their accomplice at large, who had together lured a housemaid into absconding from her employer and tried to force her into prostitution, have each been sentenced to five years in jail on a human trafficking charge.
The two men, aged 31 and 26, and their runaway compatriot accomplice received the same 5-year jail sentence, the latter in absentia.
The Court of First Instance ordered that the three men pay a Dh100,000 ($27,221) fine each and be deported after completing their jail terms.
The pair was also accused of helping the runaway man run his flat as a prostitution den, by directing customers to the location. They took between Dh90 ($24) and Dh100 ($27) a day payment for this.
The duo were caught by the police on June 21, 2017, when they sold the victim, a woman, to a police informant for Dh3,400. The victim said a woman promised her a job with a salary between Dh3,000 ($816) and Dh5,000 ($1,361). "I was working as a maid in Abu Dhabi and she encouraged me and another maid to run away."
At around 4:30 am, the accused picked her up in their car and took her to a flat in Dubai. "I stayed there for a week. They bought the other maid clothes that exposed her body. I was told to wear them as well but I told them to look for a maid's job for me and that I would not accept any other occupation," the victim said.
"About five days later, the accused (at large) picked me up in a car with the two other men. He drove for about 10 minutes and then stopped. When he stepped off, the police raided the car and arrested them," she added.
A lieutenant from the Dubai Police human trafficking section told the prosecutor that they had reliable information that a Bangladeshi man was about to sell an Ethiopian woman as a sex worker for Dh3,400 ($925).
"One of our sources made contact with the 31-year-old accused and asked to see the woman's picture on WhatsApp. Our source pretended he was interested in buying her. By then, we had obtained a public prosecution warrant to arrest those men, free the victim, search their flat and apprehend all involved," the lieutenant said.
One of the defendants met the police informant in Al Karama Park's parking lot and collected the money from him. He tried to flee when the police raided the place but was caught.
His two accomplices in the car also tried to run away but only one of them was caught.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
