Desperate housemaids were lured into prostitution by promises of better-paying jobs, a court heard yesterday.
Alleged pimps then raped their victims and sold them to the “highest bidders”, a detective told the High Criminal Court.
Two Bangladeshi men, aged 29 and 38, appeared in court yesterday, accused of being part of an alleged sex trafficking gang that ran a vice trade in Manama since 2013.
They earlier pleaded not guilty and despite the prosecution witness’ testimony yesterday the defendants were released on bail.
“My investigations led to the defendants who were running a vice gang by preying on housemaids, especially Indonesians,” the 47-year-old detective said.
“They would urge car washers or cold store employees to get the maids’ mobile numbers.
“They then called the maids, promised them better-paying jobs and lured them into meeting them before abducting them and forcing them into
prostitution.
“After the maids agreed to run away from their sponsors, they were locked up in an
apartment belonging to the driver, aged 29, and forced to have sex with men in return for money.”
He said if the victims resisted, they would be tortured and sold for up to BD400 to alleged pimps running furnished apartments and hotels.
“If they continued to resist they would be sold to owners of apartments and hotels where they would be tortured.
“If they were beautiful, the gang members would rape the maids in the apartment and keep them as sex slaves.”
The alleged vice gang was foiled after one of the “sex slaves” managed to flee her captors while they were sleeping after a month-long captivity.
Authorities tracked down the driver, who was arrested along with his co-defendant, in an apartment in Tubli on August 11 in 2014. Three runaway maids, found tied to a bed, were rescued.
However, the driver denied running a vice ring and claimed he had transported his victim to her boyfriend’s apartment.
“My friend (the co-defendant who is a 38-year-old salesman) said that his girlfriend (one of the victims) wanted to run away from her sponsor and needed a ride,” the 29-year-old said.
“I used to transport my friends as a favour and I had worked as a delivery driver in five different restaurants in Bahrain, since I arrived in 2010.
“I do not know anything about forcing her into prostitution.”
A 30-year-old Indonesian mother-of-two previously described how she had been drawn to the gang out of desperation in June 2014.
She said that she was raped and tortured by her
captors and forced into the vice trade.
The defendants could be jailed for up to 15 years if found guilty.
The trial was adjourned until February 23 for a ruling.
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