Monday, March 9, 2009 (Page 3 Second Lead)
AN 18-year-old Chinese woman on Saturday trembled in fear when she came face to face with her alleged “sex slave masters” when she appeared before the Accra Circuit Court to narrate how she was forced into prostitution by her compatriots who are believed to be part of a West African human trafficking ring.
The victim, who said she hailed from a poor family and had an ailing father, informed the court that she had sex with an average of three men a day, while her boss, James Xu Jin, 41, received either $40 for an hour or $70 for a full night.
The girl (name withheld), who wept throughout her testimony and intermittently begged the judge to protect her, said she was beaten by Jin anytime she refused to have sex with men who had paid him.
She said her passport and those of other girls in the brothel were seized by Jin, while they were told that they would be made to pay a penalty of $50 a day or $1,500 each time they refused to offer sex.
She also stated that only foreign nationals, particularly Lebanese, Indians and Chinese, patronised the brothel, called “Peach Blossom Palace” situated at Agyemang, La in Accra, and which was owned by Jin.
According to the victim, who spoke through an interpreter, the brothel was strictly out of bounds to blacks.
Earlier, she had coiled and hidden herself inside the witness box when she was called to testify, signifying with her hands to the judge that the accused persons would slit her throat if she spoke.
Her intense fear prompted the trial judge, Mrs Elizabeth Ankomah, to hear the matter in her chambers, in the presence of journalists, prosecutors, court clerks and lawyers of the accused persons.
The accused persons were allowed to stand close to the entrance of the chambers to listen to proceedings, as was required by law.
Journalists were allowed into the chambers to cover the harrowing experience of the victim and another on how they were deceived by the accused persons back home in China into believing that they were to assist in a restaurant business in Accra.
The accused persons, Jin, said to be the ringleader, his wife, Chow Xiou Ying, and Sam Shan Zifan, his younger brother, have each been charged with two counts of conspiracy and human trafficking and have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The 18-year-old victim got very pensive and intensely sad anytime she recounted her sexual encounters with men and stated on countless times that she did not like what she had gone through.
According to her, Chow was her neighbour back home in China and she had approached her (victim’s) family in 2007 with the claim that she (Chow) had opened a restaurant in Ghana and needed her (victim) to help her and Jin to operate the restaurant.
She had earlier informed the court that her parents got involved in an accident and that in the process, her father sustained severe injury in the legs and, therefore, needed money to undergo surgery.
She explained that she had to drop out of school and raise money for her father’s surgery and to assist him.
The victim informed the court that as a result of the difficulties her family faced and the mounting debt associated with the difficulties, she agreed to accompany Jin and his wife to Ghana to work in their restaurant.
She said she was, however, greeted with shock when it happened that Jin and his wife operated a brothel and not a restaurant.
She told the court that when she arrived in Ghana in December 2007, she refused to participate in prostitution and demanded to be sent back home but Jin informed her that she owed him $6,000, being payments for her passport, air ticket and other travel arrangements.
The victim told the court that Jin said he would allow her to go back to China if she agreed to have sex with men who patronised the brothel to eventually pay off her debt, adding that Zifan also dropped her off twice at another hotel to meet clients and received payments on Jin’s behalf.
According to her, she had no choice but to painfully agree to have sex for money because she did not have a passport, did not know where to seek help, had a debt to pay in connection with the loan she took to assist her father undergo surgery, among many difficulties.
Heaps of condoms, contraceptives and other pills believed to facilitate her sex trade were displayed to the court.
During cross-examination from counsel for the accused persons, Mr B. O. K. Johnson, the witness told the court that she could not tell her parents she was prostituting because it was a disgrace.
She said she knew the brothel was close to the La Police Station but could not report her ordeal because she feared for her life and that of her family back in China.
Another victim, a 36-year-old mother of a child with a brain tumour, narrated a similar ordeal she had undergone in the hands of Jin.
An ace investigative journalist, Mr Anas Aremeyaw Anas, whose seven-month investigations led to the arrest of the accused persons on February 14, 2009, also gave evidence on the activities of the accused persons.
He produced video and audio tapes on the activities of the accused persons.
Hearing continues today.
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