Court blocks attempt to frame Indonesians trafficked to Sri Lanka

By Easwaran Rutnam

A court has cleared 5 Indonesian women after the Sri Lanka Police attempted to prosecute them for prostitution under the Brothel’s Ordinance.

Lawyers said that after months of litigation, the court dismissed police attempts to incriminate the Indonesian victims of sex trafficking.

Daily Mirror last November how the Indonesian women were rescued from a brothel in Mount Lavinia after a tip off that they were trafficked into Sri Lanka.

The women were trafficked to Sri Lanka after being promised employment at star-class hotels.

However, the women had been forced into sex work after arriving in Sri Lanka and their passports had been confiscated.

Lawyers notified the police of the trafficking but following the raid the police attempted to prosecute the women for prostitution under the Brothel’s Ordinance.

Lawyers told Daily Mirror that after several challenges led by Attorney-at-Law Jerusha Crossette Thambiah together with pro bono legal organization iProbono, the Attorney General has written to the Magistrate to drop all charges against the victims and to release their passport.

Lawyers said that this reaffirmed the position taken by lawyers for the victims that the Brothel’s Ordinance criminalizes owning and managing a brothel and not working in one.

Lawyers also said that charges are being filed against the brothel managers for sex trafficking. (Courtesy Daily Mirror)