3 women jailed for prostitution in Dubai spa

Sunday, Mar 26, 2017

Dubai: Three women visitors have been jailed for one year each for working as prostitutes in what was supposed to be a massage parlour operating out of a flat at Dubai International City.

Dubai Police in October received a call about a theft incident in a flat at the Emirati cluster at International City that was believed to be a massage spa. A police patrol headed to the flat but found that the three women visitors, two Albanians and a Bulgarian, had been working as prostitutes and not as masseuses in the spa.

When the woman appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance, they contended that they worked as masseuses and denied working as prostitutes.

In his ruling, presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi also pronounced a three-month jail term for the 27-year-old Albanian man for running a brothel all the while claiming it was a massage parlour.

Records said the 27-year-old reported to the police that two Emirati men had robbed him of Dh1,500 and one of the Albanian women of another Dh1,80.

Interrogation of the Albanian man revealed that he had been running a brothel in the flat where the three women worked as prostitutes.

Presiding judge Al Shamsi also jailed one of the Emiratis, aged 20, for one year for robbing the Albanian man and one of the prostitutes.

The other Emirati, aged 19, was jailed for three months for having consensual sex with one of the Albanian women.

The Bulgarian woman contended in court that she was a masseuse and not a prostitute.

The Albanian man contended before the presiding judge that he was operating a massage spa and not a brothel from the flat.

The Emirati men pleaded not guilty.

The Albanian man and the three women will be deported following the completion of their punishments.

A police lieutenant said primary interrogations revealed that the flat was being run as a brothel and not a spa.

“We raided the flat on the fourth floor and it turned out to have been furnished and equipped as a brothel. The Albanian man was the one running it. Upon questioning the women about what had happened, they said the Emirati men visited the flat and one of them had sex with one of the women. Soon after that, the other two Emiratis brandished weapons and robbed them before they absconded. The Emirati duo were apprehended shortly after and confessed that they had committed the theft,” the lieutenant said.

The ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.

Bassam Za'za', Legal and Court Correspondent