KHUJAND, July 11, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Two women from Sughd province trafficking local young women to the United Arab Emirate (UAE) have got long jail terms.

The Khujand city court sentenced the 33-year-old woman from the Zafarobod district and the 30-year-old woman from the city of Chkalovsk to six and five years in prison respectively on July 10.

Justice Shuhrat Ahrorov, who presided over the trial, says the sentence followed their conviction on charge of trafficking people for exploitation outside Tajikistan (Article 132 (3) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).  The woman from Zafarobod is also charged with fraud causing serious loss to a citizen (Article 247 (2) and preparation for crime (Article 32 (3).

The women will serve their terms in a minimum-security penal colony, the judge said.

According to him, the woman from Zafarobod had been wanted by police for fraud and she was detained at the Dushanbe airport on February 28 this year when she was going to fly to Sharjah (UAE).  Police had information that she was trafficking young women from Sughd for sexual exploitation to the United Arab Emirates, Ahrorov said.  During the preliminary investigation, she reportedly said that she had accomplice in Chkalovsk.