Police and state prosecutors now have the powers to bring a number of people to justice after a new set of prostitution offences came into effect under the Crimes Decree yesterday.
Former High Court Judge Nazhat Shameem said people who live of the earnings of prostitution and organise prostitution rackets in the country can now be charged.
Shameem said it is also a major step forward with the clients also facing charges as the Penal Code was only targetting the prostitutes.
Nazhat Shameem said the issue of sexual exploitation is also clearly addressed in the Crimes Decree.
Under the Crimes Decree, a person commits an offence if he or she knowingly lives wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution.
It is also a crime if a person solicits or offers for immoral purposes in any public place.
The maximum sentence for these offences is six years imprisonment.
A person also commits an offence if he or she loiters in a public place for the purpose of offering themselves for sex in return for a payment of any nature, seeks the services of a prostitute in a public place, uses the services of a prostitute and makes arrangements with a prostitute in order to use his or her services by any communication whatsoever.
Any police officer may arrest without warrant any person he or she finds in any public place whom he reasonably suspects to be committing an offence under the provisions of the prostitution offences.
A magistrate may also issue a warrant authorising any police officer to enter and search a house and arrest people if it is made to appear to a magistrate by information on oath that a house is being used for purposes of prostitution.
The penalty for anyone caught operating a brothel is five years imprisonment or a ten thousand dollars fine, or both.
Feature
Prostitution clients to be charged too
