Farmer is jailed for raping housemaid in Bahrain
Manama, March 11, 2014
A Bangladeshi farmer who beat up, raped and locked up an Ethiopian maid in an apartment and forced her into prostitution has been jailed for five years.
His 28-year-old victim told prosecutors she was kidnapped by three men outside her employer's home in Manama as she took out the rubbish last June, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.
She claimed to be blindfolded, gagged and bundled into a car in broad daylight.
She was then locked in an apartment for three weeks, raped and forced into prostitution along with three other women - two Sri Lankans and an Indonesian.
However, the High Criminal Court yesterday acquitted the 33-year-old defendant of kidnap due to lack of evidence, but convicted him of assault, human trafficking and rape.
Judges also fined him BD3,000 ($7,853) and jailed him for an extra month for staying in Bahrain illegally.
His victim's ordeal came to light after passers-by alerted police when they spotted him attempting to force her into an apartment in Duraz three weeks after she was kidnapped.
The three other women, arrested in the flat, are being tried separately in connection to prostitution at the Lower Criminal Court.
The victim told prosecutors the apartment was run by a Sri Lankan female pimp.
She said that when she disagreed to have sex with men in return for money, the defendant beat her using a pipe which left her in bruises.
She also told prosecutors that she was tied to a chair and blindfolded for long periods of time and was forced to have sex with Indian and Bangladeshi men, before police rescued her.
The 33-year-old earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed the victim's story had been fabricated so she could escape charges of prostitution.
However, the defendant admitted to buying an Indonesian woman he met in Gudaibiya for BD125, after he fell in love with her.
The woman confirmed they were having sex 10 times a day and that he had promised to marry her. The defendant will be deported after completing his sentence. - TradeArabia News Service
