Prosecution fails to appear in prostitution case for the second time

A case where two women are charged with promoting prostitution failed to take off after prosecution failed to turn up.

Zebar Zubair Javaid and Zubeir Javaid are facing charges of promoting prostitution and human trafficking.

This followed the mid-January arrest of seven Nepalese and three Indian women at a club in Nyali.

The two pleaded not guilty.

Prosecution had lined up the seven Nepalese women who denied being hired by the suspects to work as prostitutes.

The seven have since been deported.

The prosecution was expected to apply to have three Indian witnesses, who were also deported, testify via video link after saying it was difficult to fly them in and get a safe house for them.

But prosecution was not represented when the case came up, prompting a protest from the defence lawyer.

“I am no longer interested in their application. We will face the case as it will be,” said lawyer Cliff Ombeta.

Ombeta told the court the prosecution had no case, citing its failure to appear in court.

“The main aim of the prosecution is to keep us waiting and giving us a lot of mentions in court,” Ombeta told Shanzu magistrate Lilian Lewa.

However, the prosecution denied that it was deliberately delaying justice and said it was making efforts to ensure that the case was fully heard and justice done.

According to the prosecution, the three witnesses will testify from Kenya's embassy in India via a video link.

In its application, prosecution wanted the witnesses to testify via video link, citing huge expenses needed to bring them in the country, protect them and the costs of taking them back to India.

It also said the witnesses lived in separate locations.

The court directed the prosecution to close its case by June 18 and to return club operating licenses to the suspects.