Dubai: A woman visitor stood trial in a Dubai court on Thursday on the charge of working in prostitution after she falsely reported to the police that 12 men had gang-raped her and later retracted that claim.

According to the case, the 29-year-old Pakistani visitor walked into a police station and alleged to the duty officer that 12 men had gang-raped her in a flat at Dubai International City in April. During further interrogation, the woman retracted her rape claim, according to records, and alleged that she had consensual sex with three clients but they didn’t pay her.

The woman was believed to have guided the police to the house of one of the men, who was apprehended. Two other men were also arrested after the first man guided them to their home at Dubai International City.

Prosecutors accused the woman of working in prostitution.

The suspect pleaded not guilty when she appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Thursday.

“I am a victim. A person, who promised to help me find a good job with good salary, tricked me. He ended up coercing me to work in the sex trade,” she told presiding judge Urfan Omar.

Asked about her demands from the court, the suspect contended: “I am asking for mercy … I have a sick son who suffers from leukaemia.”

Court records said the Dubai Misdemeanours Court sentenced the three men who had sex with the woman to two months in jail each followed by deportation.

The Misdemeanours Court also jailed the woman for two months for falsely reporting to the police that she was raped. She was also handed a deportation order.

A police sergeant testified to prosecutors that the woman gave a suspicious claim that she had been gang-raped by 12 unknown men in a flat.

“Following further and more extensive investigation, the woman admitted that she had fabricated the gang-rape claim. She retracted her statement and claimed that she worked as a prostitute for a person, who brought her three men to have paid sex with her. The suspect alleged that she had sex with the men … then they put her in a taxi and told her to go without paying her. She falsely reported that she was gang-raped. We apprehended the three men shortly after that,” the sergeant told prosecutors.

Presiding judge Omar will pronounce the verdict on June 21.