A pair of traffickers were each sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of sex trafficking two Tunisian women who had been deceived into believing they were coming to Bahrain to work as waitresses.
The High Criminal Court also fined the defendants – a Syrian man and a Moroccan woman – BD2,000 and ordered them to pay for the victims’ repatriation.
They will be deported after completing their sentences.
The two Arabs were convicted of coercing the victims into the vice trade through force, threats and deception.
They also held the women captive and relied on the money the victims earned as their primary source of income.
In addition, they were found guilty of recruiting, transporting, receiving, housing, and moving the victims with the intent to exploit them for prostitution.
“I saw a job listing on Facebook for a restaurant server in Bahrain, and messaged the person behind the ad,” the 23-year-old Tunisian victim earlier testified.”
“We began to arrange for my immigration to Bahrain.”
“I told my friend about the opportunity, and she decided to join me, and procedures were taken to move us both to Bahrain.”
“When we arrived here, the first defendant and an Asian driver received us. We were taken to a flat, where we were deprived of our freedom and forced to have sex with customers.”
“The second defendant, the Moroccan woman, said I had to work to pay her back for the travel visa and the plane tickets.”
“The defendants would take the money the customers paid, and give us some of it.”
The other victim, a 27-year-old from Tunisia, gave a similar account of the events during her Public Prosecution testimony.
Police officers were tipped off about the racket and launched an investigation, which resulted in the arrest and trial of the two pimps, aged 51 and 36.
“The defendants took advantage of the victims’ financial situation and their desperate need for money,” the officer stated.
“The Syrian started to bring clients, and the sexual encounters took place under his supervision and guard.”
The 51‑year‑old man admitted that he had applied for travel visas for the victims and that he encourages women of various Arab nationalities to engage in sex work in two hotels under his supervision, one of which is located in Hoora.
He said he is aided by the 36-year-old Moroccan woman, who collects the money on his behalf.
Meanwhile, the female defendant stated that she came to Bahrain to work as a sex worker at the Syrian man’s request.
She denied collaborating with her co‑defendant as a pimp, claiming instead to be one of his ‘regular girls’.
However, she admitted that she took money from the victims on one occasion because the woman who usually collected the cash was absent.
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