Man gets jail, caning for human trafficking after Singaporean woman became sex worker in Dubai

SINGAPORE - A man who promised to marry a Singaporean woman and later made her perform sex work in Dubai was sentenced to eight years’ jail, six strokes of the cane and a fine of $9,000 on Oct 7.

Achraf Arjaouy, 32, an Italian citizen, was convicted of a human trafficking charge in April after a trial.

He will have to spend an additional six weeks behind bars should be fail to pay the fine.

The woman, identified as V1 in court documents, flew back to Singapore after she contracted a sexually transmitted disease.

In earlier proceedings, the court heard that Achraf arrived in Singapore in March 2021 and matched with V1 on a dating app the following month.

The prosecution had said that during a whirlwind courtship, Achraf told the victim he wanted to marry her in Qatar. She was overjoyed and agreed to travel with him to Dubai en route to Qatar.

However, Achraf never intended to take V1 to Qatar and did not want to marry her.

Court documents stated that Achraf had lied to V1, claiming he came from a wealthy Qatari family and was a pilot for Qatar Airways.

The prosecution said Achraf had told V1 that their relationship would end if she refused to travel with him to Dubai.

The victim agreed to leave her life in Singapore behind, and the pair travelled to the United Arab Emirates on April 21, 2021.

While there, Achraf claimed she needed to show US$10,000 (S$12,800) as proof of funds to enter Qatar. This was not true.

Because she did not have the money, Achraf told V1 to prostitute herself to raise the money. She gave in after he pestered her.

The prosecutors said he took intimate photographs of her, created profiles for her on escort websites in Dubai, solicited customers for her, and booked a hotel for her to provide sexual services.

Achraf collected her daily earnings.

Court documents stated that V1 stopped engaging in prostitution in September 2021 after contracting a sexually transmitted disease.

She flew back to Singapore two months later.

Separately, Ashraf has 16 other pending charges, including multiple counts of cheating, and these will be dealt with later.

Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times’ court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard at the State Courts.