Dubai, May 05: A salesman and a driver were each sentenced to ten-year imprisonment on Tuesday by the Court of First Instance for kidnapping two Filipino maids, confining them in a room and trying to push them into prostitution.
The court found them, however, not guilty of raping the maids. Both will be deported after serving their jail terms.
According to the case, the Bangladeshi defendants, both in their thirties, kidnapped two Filipino housemaids on April 5 last year as they were walking down a street at Bani Yas in Abu Dhabi. They drove the maids to an apartment in the Naif area of Dubai where they confined them for a couple of days. They later allegedly raped them and tried to force them into prostitution.
One of the maids told prosecutors that on the day of the kidnapping, she was walking in the area with the other complainant and an Indonesian woman.
“Around 10am, a car stopped by us and three men stepped out,” she stated.
She and the other Filipina were dragged into the car and warned not to look out of the windows or even talk.
“The first defendant told us he would make us work in a hospital or in a shopping store,” the complainant told the police.
At the end of the journey, the two men took the women to a house.
“I saw three Indonesian women inside a room. The first defendant locked the door from outside after taking my phone SIM card,” she alleged.
Two days after being locked up, the two Bangladeshis tried to rape her but she managed to resist them brandishing a kitchen knife she had found in the room.
“The second defendant tried to have sex with me against my will and when I refused, he grabbed my neck and tried to strangle me. I pushed him away,” she said.
Later, she used the mobile phone of an Indonesian woman to seek the help of her sister in Saudi Arabia. The latter called the police.
By the time the Criminal Investigation Department officers could trace and reach the apartment where the complainants were confined, the defendants moved them to another building in the same locality.
She said one of the Indonesian women, who was in the room, told her that they worked as prostitutes for the first defendant.
The second complainant confirmed her compatriot’s testimony.
“In the house, we were taken to Dubai. I saw men having sex with two Indonesian women in one of the rooms,” she said.
The second complainant claimed that the first defendant raped her after threatening to kill her.
She also alleged that the other defendant too had sex with her against her will.
About 3.30am on April 9 last year, the police raided the apartment in Freej Al Murar and released them.
–Agencies