Chinese Sex slave’s Evidence draws Tears

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Parent Category: Justice & Security

Category: Law Reports

Created on Saturday, 14 March 2009 00:00

Last Updated on Monday, 19 November 2012 18:55

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Chinese Sex slave’s Evidence draws Tears

Startling revelations by two of the seven Chinese women allegedly trafficked into the country for prostitution aroused emotions at an Accra Circuit Court last Saturday, when they gave a vivid account of how a Chinese couple lured them into Ghana to work in a restaurant but "instead pushed them into prostitution.”

Some of those in the courtroom broke into tears as they listened to the victims' narration of their ordeals in the court presided over by Mrs Elizabeth Ankomah.

The names of the two victims aged 18 and 36 years, were not disclosed.

The accused James Xu Jim, 41, his wife, Chou Xiou Ying, 30, and Sam Shan Zifan, 27, are facing two counts of conspiracy and human trafficking to which they have pleaded not guilty.

Led in evidence by the prosecutor, ASP Mary Agbozo, as the second and third prosecution witnesses respectively they said they came from a very poor family, and they were promised a job in a restaurant in Ghana by the accused.

The 18-year-old victim, who wept throughout her evidence, said Jim approached her parents and told them that he had a restaurant in Ghana and wanted her to work in it. Jim, according to her, assured her parents not to fear since "I was going to be in safe hands".

She said when she arrived in Ghana, Jim informed her that he was no longer operating a restaurant but a bar and a club in his residence.

She said Jim seized her passport and travelling documents, and told her that she owed him 40,000 RMB (6,000 dollars) being his expenses on her travelling documents. He then forced her into prostitution to refund the amount he claimed she owed him.

"One day, he (Jim) brought a (Lebanese) man and asked me to have sex with him. I refused but he insisted. The man undressed me and had sex with me," she said adding that the money taken by Jim was not given-to her. .

According to her, she was made to have sex with different men at various times adding that she "mostly had sex with three different men in a day and sometimes one."

She said she charged 70 dollars for a night or five hours' sex and 40 dollars for an hour, all of which was taken by Jim.

She told the court that Jim mostly took her and the other victims to casinos where men, mainly foreigners of Chinese, Indian or Lebanese origins, interested in them paid Jim money and had sex with them.

She said that in the first month of their practice, Jim was taking them to the hotel in a taxi "but later made money and bought a car which he used to convey us".

According to her she and her colleagues were not happy with the sex trade. "We have been crying in the house but we could not go back to China. I begged some of the people who slept with me to take me home."

She said that at times they felt reluctant to go out for the sex trade but Jim forced them to go because "anyone who failed to do so and stayed at home had to pay him 50 dollars for a day and 1,500 dollars for a month. “I did not have money so I had to go out always."

Witness said that at times, they were made to have sex with their clients in their two rooms reserved for that purpose in Jim's house.

"When there are visitors to the bar, all the girls come out to sing and dance to entertain them and if they like any of the girls, they pay Jim and had sex with her," she said.

She told the court that she went back to China after 10 months of prostitution in Ghana, but did not tell her parents about the kind of work she was doing because Jim assured her that before she returned, he would start a restaurant at Tema and let her work in it.

"He (Jim) assured me that he will not let me have sex with men again and because I can speak some English I can help him in the restaurant," she said.

However, on her return in December, last year, she said Jim told her that there had been a change of government and "there was no Nana ... Nana is finish and therefore cannot start the restaurant so I should continue to have sex with men."

She told the court that she returned to Ghana with two other girls recruited by Jim, adding that she told the two girls about the prostitution work she was forced to do in Ghana.

She said to prevent them from getting pregnant, Jim bought them condoms and other contraceptives some of which she identified in court from a bag full of sexual boosters and contraceptives as having used some before. They included douching materials, condoms and some pills.

"Since I am young, I did not want to be pregnant or contract diseases, I asked my clients to use condom".

For her part, the 36-year-old woman and a mother of one said she was recruited by Ying under the pretext of giving her a job in her restaurant in Ghana. She said she was brought to Ghana with another lady by Ying only to discover that she had no restaurant where they were to work.

She said that after waiting for a few days without any signs of the restaurant job, "I told Ying I wanted to go back to China but she told me I cannot go because I owe her. I told her I do not have money to pay".

According to her, Ying told her that "there is only one means to pay back which is to have sex with men. I told her no" but she was forced into prostitution, adding that sometimes she had sex with the clients in the house:

Earlier, the investigative journalist (name withheld) who uncovered the sexual enslavement of the women said he befriended a source in the house who smuggled him into the house.

“I was an undercover journalist. My aim was to look for information to prove my case and if it meant that I should have sex with her (source) to get that information I would have done that," he told the court during cross examination by counsel for the accused persons, B.O.K Johnson.

Hearing continues today.

Credit Ghanaian Times