Four Bangladeshis, three men and a woman, pleaded not guilty to human trafficking and criminal complicity charges when they appeared before the Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

Of the three men, identified as S.J., N.A. and R.A aged between 23 and 35, two are jobless and one is a dyer. The woman, identified as 26-year-old M.M., is a maid.

According to the case, the victim, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi, was picked up from the Dubai International Airport in November last year by S.J., who took her to a flat in Muraqqabat. She told the prosecutor that she knew M.M. and was brought here to work in a massage parlour, where she worked for two months following which she was told that she had to work as a prostitute because of her poor language skills. She said the defendants beat her up to make her agree to their demands. They dropped her at different places to meet men and have paid sex with them.

She worked for them for sometime and then asked them to let her go back to her home country as she no longer wanted to work as a prostitute. S.J. and M.M. held her up in a room for three days during which S.J. raped her twice.

S.J., however, denied raping the victim and both he and M.M. also denied bringing the victim to work in a massage parlour from Bangladesh and forcing her into prostitution under coercion and threat. N.A. and R.A. denied helping and abetting S.J. and M.M. by beating the victim up to force her in prostitution and bringing customers to her to have paid sex with them.

Asked why the victim was staying in their flat, the male defendants told the court that the victim was in a relationship with one of them. A police officer said they arrested R.A. in March and he admitted that he worked for S.J., canvassing pleasure seekers and collecting money from them. He admitted that they beat the victim to force her into prostitution and led the police to S.J. The police raided S.J.’s flat and rescued the victim. During interrogation, S.J admitted that he had got a visa for the victim to bring her and exploit her here. The receipts of money transfers in the defendants’ names were seized.