SC accepts prosecution’s appeal against verdict

Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Supreme Federal Court accepted the Public Prosecution appeal against a verdict fining an official of a company Dhs50,000 on charges of not providing a worker with job, allowing him to work for another sponsor and helping him illegally stay in the country.

The Public Prosecution referred the suspect to the Court of First Instance and fined him Dhs50,000 dirhams for the first charge and Dhs3,000 for the second charge.

The defendant appealed and the Ajman Federal Court of Appeal accepted the appeal in form, amending the sentence and fined him Dhs50,000 for both charges.

Prosecution challenged the verdict saying there was no link between the two charges.

In another recent case, four Asian countrymen who hired an underprivileged girl inside a brothel have won reduced jail terms after convincing a jury the girl worked upon her consent.

The electrician (brothel owner, 29), his cousin (brothel treasurer, 21), an illegal resident (brothel manager, 32) and a labourer (its client, 24) first appeared on trial on at the Criminal Court on Apr.12.2018 Prosecutors said the electrician, cousin and manager with the help of an ex-fugitive countrywoman exploited the Pakistani girl, 17, inside an apartment in Al Baraha until police intervened on Jan.14 that year.

They also teamed up to run the apartment as a brothel and welcomed in an Asian woman, 33, who resorted to streetwalking after her relentless visits to the UAE to search for a decent job proved fruitless.

The labourer paid Dhs100 to the brothel manager and had an affair with the girl upon her consent. The girl told prosecutors she worked voluntarily.

“I had my passport and mobile. I was in daily contact with my parents abroad.”

The court jailed the electrician, cousin, manager and countrywoman for three years plus deportation and a Dhs100, 000 fine each. It cleared the quartet of human trafficking. It imprisoned the labourer for six months over the affair.

The court also ordered the apartment be locked.