5 years imprisonment for young men accused of facilitating prostitution amid "perfumes"

Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal has sentenced a young man who worked in perfume trade to five years in prison for facilitating prostitution for some women amid perfume trade in exchange for money, money laundering and attempting to hide his profits from crime by transferring it abroad.

The Public Prosecution assigned the accused "Arab nationality" to facilitate the prostitution of unknown women, in return for financial wages, and provide them to unknown persons, without discrimination, for the practice of prostitution, and committed the crime of money laundering by deliberately to conceal the truth of the proceeds of the crime and its source, location and movement, with a view to disguising its source, By transferring funds abroad through exchange companies, the prosecution demanded that the accused be punished in accordance with the indictment stipulated in the referral order.

The case documents showed that the defendant sent money transfers amounting to 119 transfers to people in six Arab countries during about 30 months through exchange centers worth more than 300 thousand dirhams.

During the appeal hearing, the defendant's lawyer, Hadia Hammad, appealed the cancellation of the appealed verdict and ruled once again that the defendant was acquitted of the charges against him, based on the absence of the elements of money laundering and the absence of evidence of the defendant committing this crime. Funds for goods received from outside the country after receipt and sale by payment.

Hammad argued that the elements of the crime of exploiting the prostitution and immorality of unknown women were absent, noting that the proof of this crime requires that the defendant do material tangible action, but the case papers lacked any physical evidence that could be invoked. The business papers, and the presence of women to practice, and men frequent the place, but the case papers were devoid of any physical evidence.

She pointed out that the defendant submitted a portfolio of documents containing invoices for the purchase of perfumes issued by one of the Arab countries and many other documents that illustrate the legitimacy and sources of those funds, and justified the transfer of funds to women, that women are the predominant element in the field of perfume trade.