NSW: Man forced wife to work as a prostitute: police say

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-2006
NSW: Man forced wife to work as a prostitute: police say

SYDNEY, April 16 AAP - A man who forced his wife to work as a prostitute in Sydney
has been charged with sex slavery offences.

The 37-year-old man went to Egypt in early 2000 for an arranged marriage with a 25-year-old
Egyptian woman, police said in a statement.

When the couple arrived back in Australia months later the man allegedly told his wife
she would have to work to pay for her Australian visa.

He then took her to a brothel at Banksia in Sydney's south, where she was forced to
work for two-and-a-half years, police alleged.

Police said the man took her earnings and used them to purchase a unit and fund his
family in Lebanon.

The pair returned to Egypt in 2002, where they divorced and both subsequently came
back to Australia.

Police yesterday arrested the man, who now lives at Wiley Park, in Sydney's south-west
and charged him with procuring a person for prostitution and sex slavery offences.

During a hearing today at Parramatta the man was granted conditional bail and ordered
to appear at Kogarah Local Court on May 9.

AAP ag/arb/nf

KEYWORD: PROSTITUTE

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