Two businessmen and a Filipino woman appeared in a Dubai court on Sunday to face charges of locking up five Filipino domestic workers in an apartment in the emirate for a month.
The five women had been hired by a recruitment agency in August. On August 19, one of them fell from an apartment building and fractured her hips while trying to escape using a rope made of blankets, Gulf News reported.
Police were informed of the incident and learned that the five Filipino women had been locked in an apartment that belonged to the agency for a month. The police then apprehended the agency’s owner, an Egyptian businessman, and his Jordanian partner along with a Filipino woman who worked for them.
At the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday, prosecutors accused the three suspects of illegally confining the five women under threat, assault and coercion. The court heard that the suspects beat the five women after they had been rejected and returned by their employers.
The three suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges, while the Filipino women’s legal representative lodged a civil lawsuit seeking 21,000 dirhams (US$5,700) each in temporary compensation.