Illegal alien arrives in a taxi, under a blanket

The Dubai Criminal Court heard the testimony of the third accused in the case of three Bengalis - two men and a woman - who are accused of human trafficking and forcing women into prostitution. They were trapped by an Omani national in co-ordination with Dubai Police.

MMS, 29, cook; ZAJ, 29, jobless, and HAR, 27, a clerk; were accused of human trafficking and forcing AAI, 29, a Bengali housemaid into prostitution. HAR has been accused of holding the victim illegally, too.

In the previous hearing, the two men MMS, 29, cook, and HAR, 27, clerk, denied the accusations. On Thursday, ZAJ, jobless, woman, who failed to attend the previous hearing, denied the accusation too.

Her defence lawyer, who is also defending HAR, told the court that ZAJ and HAR did not smuggle AAI from Oman and tried not to encourage her from doing so, but the latter absconded from her employer and came to Dubai willingly.

The defence lawyer of MMS, who was appointed by the court, refrained from taking the case and the court adjourned the case to next month to appoint another lawyer to MMS.

According to the prosecution sheet AAI and ZAJ worked as housemaids at her sponsor Khalid's home in Oman. But ZAJ ran away from her sponsor and came to Dubai. But she maintained contact with AAI, who in turn informed her sponsor that ZAJ was in Dubai.

The Omani sponsor asked AAI to travel to Dubai to find out the whereabouts of ZAJ. He, in fact, told her to take a taxi, which she shared with another woman and three children. At the UAE-Oman border, the taxi driver hid AAI under a blanket between the front and rear seats and cheated the officials.

Upon reaching Dubai, AAI called ZAJ for directions to her home, and, at the specified location, MMS received her and took her to a house in Al Jaflia.
There AAI was raped by a person who paid the Bengali man money. The man who raped her then took AAI to another house, where she saw ZAJ.

Meanwhile, HAR arrived there and after speaking to ZAJ and the other man, took AAI to a house in Al Karama, where she was held until police arrested her on April 12.

Explaining the modus oerandi before the prosecution, Mansour Omar, 47, an Emirati policeman, said that on April 12, he received a call from Major Khalf Ahmad who told him that an Omani by the name of Khalid had informed him about some Bengalis who smuggle housemaids from Oman.

Mansour then spoke to Khalid and met him near Hyatt Regency Hotel to get further details. Khalid told the policeman the details of the Omani who drove these girls to the UAE through the Hatta border. However, Khalid later called the policeman and told him that the direction was changed to Al Hili border point.

The policeman notified Al Hili boarder officials as well as the Al Madam inspection officials. The next morning, Khalid told the policeman that his housemaid AAI was with MMS and gave the police their details in Dubai.

On April 13, police arrested MMS at his house in Al Jaflia. MMS confessed that he had received AAI in Dubai, and that along with ZAJ he had sold AAI for Dh2,000 to HAR.

MMS then led the police to where ZAJ was staying, who also confessed that she was smuggled in to the UAE through the Hatta border by an Omani and was received by MMS. And that she was aware that AAI was also being smuggled.

Investigations have revealed that ZAJ was deported from the UAE on May 11, 2009. She had been reported absconding and was working for another employer illegally here. HAR was later arrested from a shop in Karama.

He confessed that he bought AAI for Dh2,000 and that he held her in a house in Al Mankhool area.

According to the testimony of Major Khalaf Ahmad, MMS sold AAI as he could not pay the agreed Dh2,000 for bringing her into the UAE.

The members of the investigating team have testified before the prosecution.

Meanwhile, Khalid testified that ZAJ had actually absconded from his father-in-law's house in Oman. But she had left her mobile phone behind.

And it’s on checking her phone that they found there were number of calls from the UAE. He assigned Babol, a Bengali, to talk to the person whose number was on the maid’s mobile. The person said that ZAJ was staying in the Old Souq in Sharjah’s Hamriya area.

Khalid came to Sharjah to look for ZAJ. But as he could not find her in Sharjah, he notified Al Hamriya Police who directed him to communicate with Bu Hamdan, an officer at Dubai Residency and Foreign Affairs Department.

Bu Hamdan suggested trapping the Bengali by asking him to send another housemaid, but on the same day. So Khalid called Babol in Oman and asked him to call the Bengali in the UAE and tell him about his wish to smuggle in a housemaid. The Bengali asked Babol to let the housemaid talk to ZAJ.

That was how AAI was trapped and brought to the UAE. Khalid’s wife dropped AAI at Adi Wadi, where she took a taxi to Lulu Centre - the place where the Omani had promised to pick her up.

Khalid assigned his nephew to keep a watch on the Omani man. Khalid called Bu Hamdan and told him about the process of the operation so the latter set a trap at Hatta Oman Boarder.

Khalid’s nephew called him and told him that he lost them and later knew from AAI that the Omani man has used another car to enter the UAE. AAI paid the Omani man RO90 for bringing her into the UAE and the later threatened with selling her if the rest of the money was not paid to him.

Bu Hamdan arranged that a fake brother of Babol will pay the Omani the remaining sum. The Bengali assigned by Bu Hamdan to play Babol’s brother called MMS and that he want to meet him to pay him the money so he knew his address and the house was raided by police, Khalid testified.

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