40 Pak men sentenced for trafficking in girls
Islamabad,
October 23, 2002
The Tribune
An Iranian
court has sentenced 40 Pakistanis to varying jail terms for
smuggling teenaged girls to Pakistan for prostitution.
A Pakistani
daily, ‘The News International’, quoting an Iranian newspaper
‘Khorassan’, said today that these Pakistani nationals presented
themselves to the poor Iranian families and sought their young
daughters’ hand in marriage. After marriage, they usually came
back to Pakistan and sold these girls, aged between 12 and 20 years,
to brothels.
The Iranian
judge, Justice Reza Daneshvar Sara, handing down the judgement,
said, “The girls who managed to escape from these brothels and
were somehow brought to Iran were in a state of mental and physical
trauma.”
The other
accused, who had helped the girls in their escape back to Iran, were
granted “Islamic forgiveness”.
Asking all accused to hand themselves over to the
Iranian authorities, Mr Justice Sara said, “In case they do not do
that, they will be declared absconders and the case will be handed
over to Interpol.” UNI