April 27, 2009 (Page 28)
THE Accra Circuit Court has fixed Tuesday, June 2, 2009 for judgement in the case involving three Chinese nationals who have been accused of trafficking girls for prostitution.
The trial, which has been going on for the past two months involves James Xu Jin, the alleged ringleader, his wife, Chou Xiou Ying and Sam Shan Zifan, James's younger brother, who are believed to be part of a West African human trafficking syndicate.
They have each been charged with conspiracy and human trafficking. The accused have pleaded not guilty to all the charges and have been refused bail.
The trial judge, Mrs Elizabeth Ankomah, fixed the date after she announced to the court that the prosecution and the defence teams had filed their addresses in the case.
A total of 11 witnesses, including 10 prosecution and one defence witness were called in the trial which began on March 5, 2009.
The seven victims were led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Ms Mary Agbozo, to testify.
According to the girls, they were recruited from Harbin, a city in China under the guise that they were to assist Jin and Chou to run a restaurant in Accra for good salaries but on arrival in Ghana, they were forced into prostitution by James and Chou.
The story of the girls, whose names have been withheld, are similar in terms of the fact that they were all poor, they all owed Jin, who paid for their air fare and other transport arrangements, their passports were seized and they had to pay a penalty of $50 a day or $1,500 anytime they refused to offer sex, which they were forced to do sometimes four or five times in a day.
They also said they relied on tips from their clients, who were mostly Lebanese, Chinese and Indians.
An 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.
Other witnesses for the prosecution included the investigator in the case and an official from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).
The accused persons, who were led by their counsel, Mr B. O. K. Johnson, to testify said they operated a restaurant and not a brothel.
1 comment:
In this article we shall be discussing about the various ways in which one can make as much profits as maybe possible and how we can select securities to make investments. Investing in securities can be profitable only if investment is done with proper research
Post a Comment