Prison terms of Indian couple remitted in human trafficking case

Dubai, Sep 26 (UNI) The sentences of the two Indians who faced charges of sexual assaulting their housemaid has been remitted to seven years from the initial 15 years.

The duo were sentenced under the new federal law to combat human trafficking. The Dubai Court of Appeal reduced the initial sentence, awarded by the Dubai Court of First Instance, after the Indian couple -- a 29-year-old woman and her 25-year-old male driver -- sought leniency earlier this month, Gulf News reported.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani driver has been awarded three-year imprisonment for aiding and abetting the couple although he was earlier acquitted for want of evidence. All the three convicts would be deported after serving their respective jail terms.

The verdict, pronounced by the Dubai Court of First Instance in July this year, considered the case fit for implementation of the Federal Law No 51 on Human Trafficking 2006.

The Indians were charged with trying to sell the Indonesian maid to a police officer who masqueraded as a client. The Indian woman was also charged with physically abusing the maid.

The victim said in her statement that her compatriot encouraged her to abandon her sponsor.

She stayed with her friend before being taken away by a Bangladeshi who 'sold' her to some Indians in Al Ain, who later sold her to the Indian couple for 4,300 dirham.

''The two pocketed the money from my customers.The woman used to beat and abuse me,'' she said.

UNI