Parents accused of forcing 17-year-old daughter into prostitution

DUBAI // A teenager told a court yesterday that her parents sold her virginity for Dh16,000 to a man she was ordered to have sex with.

Dubai Criminal Court heard that the 17-year-old Pakistani girl came to the UAE on August 26 last year. Ten days after she arrived, her father took her to a hotel where she was given to a strange man who had sex with her.

“He took away my virginity and paid my father Dh16,000,” said the girl.

Her father, Pakistani K A, 38, and his 35-year-old wife S A both deny human trafficking, while SA also denies working as a prostitute.

Fellow Pakistanis, A H, 40, and M A, 19, who are known as Dr Sunny and Dr Max, deny running a brothel, abusing women and creating a website with photographs to advertise the prostitutes.

A fifth defendant, M Y, 36, denies having sex with the teenager.

The court was told that a month after the first incident, she was again taken to pleasure a customer. “I was taken to the hotel room by my parents, who told to me to remain with the man the entire night and have sex with him,” she said. She added that there were two men in the room, one in traditional Pakistani dress and the other in casual clothes.

“I heard my father talking to them and telling one of them not to cause me any harm because I’m young,” said the girl. Her father agreed to a fee of Dh10,000 with the men, she added.

The two men were, in fact, undercover police officers, who had been tipped off by an informant that K A had been prostituting his daughter. The parents were arrested at the hotel room.

The girl was crying and confused in court so it was unclear how many men she was forced to have sex with before her parents’ arrest.

“During investigations, the girl said that her parents asked her to have sex with me because of their bad financial conditions, so she agreed,” testified police officer O A, 31.

Corporal S A, 34, told the court that the father confessed to him that he had asked his wife and daughter to work as prostitutes.

Investigations lead to the arrest of the other defendants and the closure of the brothel, where five women were found working.

Police confiscated money and a laptop, where police found evidence of the brothel’s website. “We also found a list of the prostitutes’ names, their prices and the names of preferred hotels,” said O A.

The court listened as the girl told of how her father had emotionally blackmailed her by not speaking to her when she refused his request to prostitute her body.

“He told me that I should do this because we are poor and this will make us rich,” said the 17-year-old, who is currently staying at the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children.

The next hearing is on April 21.

salamir@thenational.ae