Kidnapped by SLAVE TRADERS : The Most Insane Cases of Kidnapping Female Tourists.

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Akmed suggested that the girls get out, saying that the program was about to begin.

They got out of the car and looked around.

The place looked authentic, although it was noticeably poor.

There were no other tourists there, which seemed strange, but Ahmed explained that the other group had already left, and the next one would arrive later.

They were offered tea and invited to sit on carpets by the fire.

One of the Bedawins spoke to them in broken English, telling them about life in the desert.

Everything looked like a normal tourist program.

The girls relaxed, took pictures, and drank tea.

The sun began to sink toward the horizon.

Akmed said that sunset and dinner would soon be ready, after which they would drive back.

It was around 6:00 in the evening.

The following events happened quickly.

Around 6, two pickup trucks drove up to the village.

Four men got out, two of them carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles.

This no longer looked like a tourist program.

Kaza and Magda stood up, instinctively sensing that something was wrong.

Akmed spoke to the armed men in Arabic.

The conversation was brief.

One of the armed men took out a wad of dollars and handed it to Akmed.

Akmed counted the bills, nodded, got into his jeep, and drove away with the second driver without looking back.

The whole thing took less than 5 minutes.

The girls realized they had been sold.

They tried to run away, but were quickly caught.

Magda screamed, tried to break free, and was hit in the face.

Kaza was held by two men.

They were tied up with ropes, their mouths gagged with rags, and pushed into the back of one of the pickup trucks.

All this happened in the light of the setting sun, in front of the other Bedawins from the village, who did not intervene.

The whole operation looked well rehearsed and routine.

Investigators would later establish that similar kidnappings of tourists in this region occurred regularly from 2009 to 2015 after which the incidents became less frequent but did not stop completely.

The pickup trucks drove off in different directions.

Kasha was taken north magda northwest.

The road was bumpy and the girls were thrown around in the metal truck bed.

Kasha managed to loosen the ropes on her hands a little, but she did not try to run away.

Realizing that there was no chance of survival in the desert in the dark, the car drove for about 2 hours.

When it was completely dark, the pickup truck stopped at a small settlement of several houses and cattle pens.

Kasha was pulled out of the back, her legs were untied, and she was led into one of the houses.

The house was simple.

Two rooms with adobe walls, earthn floors, and minimal furniture.

A kerosene lamp burned in the corner.

Kasha was placed on the floor in the back room and the door was locked.

She heard voices outside, male and female.

They spoke Arabic.

After a while, the door opened and a woman in her 40s dressed in black entered.

She untied Kasha’s hands and gave her water and bread.

In broken English, she said that Kasia now had to work and obey, otherwise things would get worse.

She explained that it was pointless to run away as there was desert all around.

The nearest town was 100 km away and without water, she would not make it.

Casia did not sleep that first night.

She tried to understand what was happening, how to contact the outside world, how to get out.

Her phone had been taken from her in the pickup truck.

The door was locked from the outside.

There were no windows.

She heard people talking behind the wall.

Then the sounds died down and everyone went to sleep.

Kazia cried but tried to do so quietly.

She thought about Magda, not knowing if her friend was alive, where she was, or what had happened to her.

She thought about her parents in Warsaw, who knew nothing and were waiting for news from the trip.

She had sent her last message to her mother around 4:00 in the afternoon when they were driving into the desert, saying that they were going on an excursion and that she would write in the evening.

The next morning, the situation became clearer.

The woman who had come at night turned out to be the wife of the head of this Bedawin family.

The family consisted of the head himself named Hamdi, his wife Amina, their three children, and Hamd’s mother, an old woman of about 70.

They lived here permanently, raising livestock, keeping goats and several camels.

The nearest settlement was 20 km away.

There was no electricity in the house.

Water was drawn from a well, and meals were cooked over an open fire.

They lived poorly, almost primitively by 21st century standards.

Case explained her role to her.

She was to help with the housework, carry water from the well, cook, clean, tend to the livestock, and wash clothes.

She worked from dawn to dusk.

She was fed poorly, mostly flatbread and water, sometimes goat or dates.

She was allowed to sleep in the same room where she had spent her first night.

The door was locked at night.

During the day, she was supervised by Amina or her mother-in-law.

Hamdi and his eldest son, a 16-year-old teenager, were armed and carried old rifles.

It was clear that any attempt to escape would be met with force.

For the first few days, Casia was in shock.

She couldn’t believe that this was really happening in 2021 in a country visited by millions of tourists.

She tried to talk to Amina to explain that her family would pay the ransom, that she had to be released.

Amina replied that they had already paid for her, and now she was their property.

Kazia was bought for $4,000, which was a huge sum for this family, equal to several years of income from cattle breeding.

Amina saw nothing wrong with the situation.

For her, it was a normal transaction.

Meanwhile, in Heratada, the girl’s parents raised the alarm.

When Kaza and Magda did not return to the hotel by the morning of April 28th, the administration initially assumed that they might have been delayed on an excursion or decided to stay somewhere for the night.

But when they still could not be reached by lunchtime, the hotel staff called the police.

The girl’s parents in Poland had also been unable to get any response to their messages and calls since the morning.

The mothers of both girls contacted each other, then the hotel.

By the evening of April 28th, it became clear that the girls were missing.

The Egyptian police in Herata registered a missing person’s report.

Initially, the case was treated as a routine disappearance of tourists.

There are several dozen such cases every year throughout Egypt, most of which are quickly resolved.

People are found in hospitals after accidents in other cities or sometimes they simply lose contact and their documents.

Serious investigations usually begin after a few days if no information is forthcoming.

Hotel staff told the police about the guide Ahmed and the desert tour.

They gave his business card and phone number.

The police tried to contact him but the number did not answer.

They checked the travel company listed on the business card.

It turned out that no such company existed.

The business card was fake.

This was the first serious sign that the disappearance could be criminal.

The case was transferred to the anti-kidnapping department.

Investigators began searching for Ahmed.

Other tourists who had seen him at the hotel provided a description of the guide.

Dozens of people matched the description, but no official guides with that name were found in the databases.

They checked the hotel’s surveillance cameras and found a recording of the girls getting into a white Toyota SUV.

The license plate number was blurry in the recording, but experts enhanced the image.

The number led them to the owner, a local resident who said he had sold the car 2 months ago to someone for cash without any paperwork.

The trail went cold.

The Polish consulate in Cairo got involved in the case immediately.

The consul contacted the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior and asked them to intensify the search.

The story began to leak into the Polish media.

The girl’s parents gave interviews, asked for help, and appealed to the government.

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent an official request to the Egyptian authorities.

The case took on a diplomatic dimension.

The Egyptian authorities organized a search operation in the desert between Hada and Safaga.

This is a huge area, hundreds of square kilometers of desert land dotted with dozens of Bedawin settlements.

The police began to visit these settlements, interview local residents, and search for witnesses.

But the Bedawins are extremely secretive, distrustful of the authorities, and unwilling to give information to strangers.

Most of those interviewed claimed that they knew nothing about the missing tourists and had not seen any white women.

The problem was that kidnapping tourists for sale into slavery or for ransom had been a known practice in this region since the late 2000s.

Between 2009 and 2015, Bedawin clans in the Sinai Peninsula and the Eastern Desert kidnapped according to estimates by human rights organizations.

More than 30,000 migrants and refugees from Eratraa, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

They were held in the desert, tortured, and their relatives were asked for ransom.

Those who couldn’t pay were sold into slavery or killed.

There have also been cases involving Western tourists, although much less frequently.

In 2012 and 2013, Bedawins kidnapped several American and European tourists demanding ransom or the release of prisoners.

Almost all of these cases were resolved through payment or negotiations.

But after 2015, international pressure and the actions of the Egyptian army in Sinai reduced the number of such cases.

However, the practice did not completely stop.

It went deeper underground.

The Egyptian authorities were aware of this problem, but preferred not to publicize it so as not to scare tourists.

Tourism brings Egypt about 12 billion a year and is a vital sector of the economy.

Any information about kidnappings could damage the country’s reputation and lead to the cancellation of tours.

Therefore, officially, kidnapping cases were hushed up or presented as isolated incidents unrelated to a systemic problem.

In the case of Casey and Magda, the Egyptian police conducted an investigation, but without much enthusiasm.

The investigators understood that if the girls had indeed been kidnapped by Bedawins, it would be extremely difficult to find them.

Bedawin clans live by their own laws, do not recognize the authority of the state, and have extensive family ties.

The police cannot simply enter a Bedawin settlement and conduct a search without serious grounds and the permission of the elders.

Any attempt to use force could lead to a conflict that the Egyptian government doesn’t want to provoke.

By the end of May 2021, the search had reached a dead end.

The police found no trace of the girls.

Gita Ahmed was also not found.

The official version of the Egyptian authorities was that the girls may have been victims of an accident in the desert, got lost, and died of dehydration.

Their bodies could have been buried by sand or eaten by wild animals.

The possibility of kidnapping was considered, but without concrete evidence, the investigation did not progress.

The case remained formally open, but no further action was taken.

The girl’s parents did not give up.

They hired private investigators and contacted international human rights organizations that work with victims of human trafficking.

One such organization, which helped refugees from Africa freed from Bedawin captivity, agreed to help.

They had contacts among the Bedawins, informants who passed on information for money.

Through these channels, they began to spread information about the missing Polish tourists, offering a reward for any information.

Meanwhile, Kaza had already spent a month in captivity.

She had become accustomed to the routine, getting up at dawn, working all day, eating meager meals, sleeping on the floor in a locked room.

She had become physically weak, lost several kilograms, and her skin was burnt and cracked from the sun and hard work.

But the main challenge was the psychological strain.

She did not know how long it would last, whether she would ever be released, or whether Magda was alive.

She did not lose hope, but with each passing day, her hope faded a little more.

In early June, an event occurred that changed her situation.

A man on a motorcycle arrived at the house.

A relative of Hamdi from a neighboring settlement.

He talked with Hamdi for a long time.

They sat by the fire and drank tea.

Kaza worked nearby carrying water.

She did not understand Arabic, but she noticed that the conversation was serious.

After the guest left, Hamdi was pensive and silent.

In the evening he spoke with his wife.

Kasha heard fragments of the conversation but did not understand their meaning.

The next day Hamdi left somewhere in his pickup truck and did not return until evening.

Since then the atmosphere in the house had changed.

Everyone had become nervous and wary.

Kasha later realized that her relatives conversation had been about the police.

Egyptian officers had appeared in several neighboring settlements, questioning Bedawins and searching for missing tourists.

Information about this quickly spread through family ties between clans.

Hamdi and his family became concerned.

Keeping the kidnapped European woman was becoming risky.

If the police found her here, it could lead to serious problems, possibly prison for the whole family.

But simply letting Kasia go was also impossible.

They had paid money for her and she knew the way to their house and could lead the authorities there.

In midJune, Hamdi decided to move Casia to another location.

He made arrangements with a distant relative who lived even deeper in the desert, 150 km from any cities or roads.

The police would definitely not show up there.

The place was so remote that even other Bedawins rarely ventured there.

Early in the morning on June 19th, Casia was awakened, her hands were tied, and she was placed in the back of a pickup truck under a tarpollin.

The trip took about 5 hours along desert trails.

When she was pulled out of the truck, she saw an even more miserable settlement.

Three houses made of clay and stones, a goat pen, a well, and nothing else.

A rocky desert stretched for hundreds of kilome around.

The new family she was handed over to consisted of a 60-year-old man named Sal, his two wives, and five children of various ages.

Living conditions here were even worse than at Hamdis.

Water was scarce, so they conserved it and used it several times.

There was little food, mainly dried dates and cornflour flatbread.

Meat was rarely eaten, except when a goat was slaughtered.

Cas was given a corner in one of the rooms which was locked at night.

During the day, she worked under the supervision of one of Salai’s wives, a woman in her 40s with a harsh temperament.

There was even more work to do, carrying water from a well 200 m from the house, washing all the family’s clothes by hand, cooking, cleaning the goat pen, and cleaning the skins of slaughtered animals.

Kaza understood that her chances of rescue were now even slimmer.

This place was so isolated that even if someone was looking for her, they would never find her here.

But she continued to cling to life, did her work, did not provoke conflicts, and waited for an opportunity.

She began to learn Arabic by listening to the family’s conversations and memorizing words.

This gave her a slight advantage, allowing her to understand what was going on around her and what people were talking about.

Saler’s younger wife sometimes talked to her, taught her Arabic words, and explained how to do certain jobs correctly.

This woman was more sympathetic than the rest of the family.

Another two months passed.

August in the desert was unbearably hot with daytime temperatures rising above 45°.

They had to work mainly early in the morning and in the evening while during the day everyone hid in the shade of their houses.

Kasia lost a lot of weight.

Her European skin became deeply tanned and covered with many small scars from wounds and burns.

Her clothes turned into rags and she was given an old Bedawin cloak and scarf.

Outwardly she began to resemble a local woman.

But the main change was in her psychological state.

Kaza began to accept the situation as a new reality in which she would have to live for an indefinite period of time.

It was a defensive reaction of the psyche, a way of surviving in a hopeless situation.

Meanwhile, the situation with Magda developed differently.

She was taken to another settlement about 120 km from where Kaza was being held.

The family that bought Magda was wealthier.

The head of the family was involved in smuggling, transporting goods across the desert between Sudan and Egypt, and had connections with criminal groups.

He had two pickup trucks, an electric generator, and a satellite phone.

Magda was not kept in isolation as strictly as Kasha.

She was allowed to move freely around the house and was not locked up at night.

But that did not mean she could escape.

The settlement was guarded, surrounded by desert, and the head of the family made it clear that any attempt to escape would end badly.

He showed her the gun he always carried with him.

Magda was lucky in one respect.

The head of the family did not use physical violence against her.

He saw her as an investment, a commodity that could be sold or exchanged later.

He planned to either demand a ransom from her family or sell her to someone in another country.

While he kept her, he made her do housework, but his treatment of her was relatively tolerable.

He fed her normally, gave her clean clothes, and allowed her to wash.

Magda quickly understood her role and played by the rules, did not resist, did what was required of her, and waited.

In July 2021, the head of the family tried to contact Magda’s parents to demand a ransom.

He used an intermediary, a man who had contacts in Herata.

The intermediary called the Polish consulate in Cairo and conveyed the message that Magda was alive, held captive by Bedawins, and that $50,000 were being demanded for her release.

It was a huge sum for an ordinary Polish family, but Magda’s parents were ready to raise the money.

They contacted the Egyptian authorities and the consulate, asking them to arrange for the transfer of the money and the release of their daughter.

But the Egyptian police insisted that paying the ransom was illegal and would only encourage the kidnappers.

Instead, they promised to carry out a rescue operation if they could locate Magda.

The negotiations reached an impass.

The kidnappers did not want to reveal her exact location until they received the money and the police did not want to pay the ransom.

Several weeks passed and contact was lost.

The head of the family decided that this girl was too much trouble and began to look for other options.

In August, he sold Magda onto a man who was involved in smuggling people into Libya.

The deal was made for $3,000.

Magda was taken west, closer to the Libyan border.

In 2021, Libya was still in the throws of civil war and chaos following the overthrow of Gaddafi.

The country was divided between several waring factions with the central government having no control over most of the territory.

Under these conditions, human trafficking flourished.

Thousands of migrants from Africa trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean Sea, ended up in the hands of Libyan gangs who held them in concentration camps, demanded ransom, sold them into slavery, or forced them to work.

European hostages were rare, but they did occur.

Magda was held in one such camp on the outskirts of the city of Tobuk near the Egyptian border.

The conditions were appalling.

Dozens of people in one room, minimal food and water, unsanitary conditions, disease.

She was forced to work on a construction site, carrying bricks and bags of cement.

The guards were cruel, using violence for the slightest disobedience.

Magda saw other prisoners being beaten, saw people dying from disease and exhaustion.

She knew that if they didn’t find a way out, she would die there within a few months.

In September 2021, the camp owners tried to sell Magda on.

They contacted criminal networks that smuggle people into Europe.

A buyer was found in Italy who was looking for white women for brothel.

The deal was worth €10,000.

Magda’s documents were forged, she was photographed, and a fake passport was made.

The plan was to transport her by sea to Italy on one of the boats carrying migrants and hand her over to the buyer there.

Magda learned about this plan from one of the guards who spoke English.

She understood that if she ended up in Italy in the hands of human traffickers, there would be no chance of freedom.

On September 23rd, a group of 30 people, including Magda, were put in a truck and taken to the coast.

The journey took several hours.

They were taken to a fishing village where a rubber boat crowded with people was waiting on the shore.

They were mostly Africans, migrants from Somalia, Eratraa, and Nigeria trying to reach Europe.

Magda was pushed into the boat with the others.

There were about a 100 people in the boat, although it was designed for a maximum of 50.

Everyone was given life jackets, but half of them were defective.

The boat was taken out to sea and left there.

The people were given coordinates and told that a ship would pick them up in a few hours.

The boat sailed on the open sea for about 6 hours.

The weather was relatively calm with small waves.

Magda sat in the middle of the boat, squeezed on all sides by other people.

Many prayed, some cried, children screamed.

The boat’s engine was running at full throttle and stalled several times.

Towards evening, a ship appeared in the distance.

It was an Italian Coast Guard patrol boat.

They patrolled these waters, intercepting boats with migrants.

When the ship approached, they lowered boats and began to evacuate people from the rubber boat.

Magda was one of the last to be taken on board.

On the ship, everyone was placed on the deck and given water, food, and warm blankets.

Medics examined the people and provided first aid.

Magda was in shock, exhausted, and dehydrated.

When Italian officers began questioning the rescued people to establish their identities, Magda said that she was a Polish citizen and had been kidnapped in Egypt 5 months earlier.

At first, the officers did not believe her, thinking that she was making up a story to obtain asylum.

However, she provided her personal details, her passport number, which she remembered by heart, her parents’ names, and her address in Warsaw.

The officers checked the information through Interpol’s databases.

Magda had indeed been listed as missing since April 2021.

She was immediately separated from the other migrants, placed in a separate cabin, and a doctor was called.

The Polish consulate in Rome was contacted.

The next day, September 24th, the ship arrived at the port of Lampadusa, an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea, which serves as the first point of reception for migrants.

Magda was handed over to representatives of the Polish consulate.

She was taken to a hospital on the island where she spent 3 days under medical supervision.

She was physically exhausted and had many minor injuries and infections.

but no serious damage.

Her psychological state was severe.

She was in post-traumatic shock.

On September 27th, Magda was transferred to Rome, where she was met by her parents, who had flown in from Poland.

It was an emotional reunion.

Her mother cried and hugged her daughter, unable to believe that she was alive.

Her father stood silently, unable to speak.

Magda also cried, allowing herself to show emotion for the first time in 5 months.

That same day, they flew to Warsaw.

At home, Magda gave her first statement to the Polish police.

She recounted everything she could remember.

The kidnapping, the journey through the desert, the first Bedawin family, the sail, the camp in Libya, the boat.

She described the people, places, and events in as much detail as possible.

The Polish police passed the information on to their Egyptian colleagues.

The investigation into the case resumed with renewed vigor.

Now it was clear that the girls had been kidnapped and sold into slavery.

The Egyptian authorities launched an operation to find Kzia, who was still in captivity.

Magda described the area where she had been held for the first few weeks, but did not know the exact coordinates.

Investigators used satellite maps to try to identify possible locations based on her descriptions.

They began a new round of questioning Bedawins in the region, but another 3 months passed without result.

Kaza was never found.

Egyptian police conducted raids in several Bedawin settlements, but each time they either received false information or arrived too late.

The Bedawins warned each other about the approach of the police via mobile phones and radio stations.

By the time the police arrived at a settlement, all suspicious individuals had already been hidden or moved.

The system of mutual responsibility among Bedawin clans worked effectively.

In December 2021, a breakthrough occurred.

One of the Bedawins, who owed money to the authorities, agreed to become an informant in exchange for having the charges against him dropped.

He knew of the existence of several European women who were being held in the desert by various families.

According to his information, one of them could be Casey.

She was in a very remote settlement where few people ever went.

The informant gave approximate coordinates and agreed to show the way.

On December 8th, the Egyptian police organized an operation.

A group of 20 special forces officers in several SUVs set out for the desert under the informant’s guidance.

They traveled at night to avoid attracting attention.

The journey took about 4 hours.

They arrived at the settlement at dawn, surrounded the houses, and entered with automatic weapons.

In one of the houses, they found a white woman in Bedawin clothing working at a well.

She was frightened by the armed men and tried to run away, but they stopped her.

When they asked her name, she was silent at first, then said in Polish, “Kaza.

” It was a shock to everyone.

Kaza looked completely different from the photographs taken in April.

She was emaciated, tanned to blackness in rags, her hair tangled and dirty.

but it was her.

The officers wrapped her in a blanket and took her out of the house.

Sal’s family did not resist, realizing that there was nowhere to run.

All adult members of the family were arrested on the spot and put in cars.

The children were left in the care of relatives from a neighboring settlement.

The group returned to Heratada by lunchtime.

Kazia was taken to the hospital where she spent a week under medical supervision.

Her physical condition was severe.

Severe exhaustion, dehydration, multiple skin infections, worms, and vitamin deficiency.

Her psychological state was even worse.

She had difficulty speaking, couldn’t concentrate, and cried constantly.

Psychologists diagnosed her with acute post-traumatic stress disorder.

She was afraid to be alone in a room, afraid of men, and couldn’t sleep at night.

These were classic symptoms of prolonged captivity and slavery.

Kazya’s parents flew to Herada on December 15th.

The meeting with their daughter was difficult.

Kaza did not recognize them at first, looking detached, as if she did not understand what was happening.

Only after a few hours, when her mother hugged her and began to speak Polish, did something click in her mind, and she burst into tears.

It was catharsis.

the release of emotions that had built up over eight months.

The doctors gave her a sedative.

On December 20th, the family flew to Warsaw.

In Poland, both girls began a long process of recovery.

Magda recovered faster.

She had spent 5 months in captivity, and although the ordeal had been difficult, she was psychologically stronger.

Kazia on the other hand had spent 8 months in slavery in harsher conditions with no hope of release.

Her psyche was more deeply broken.

She saw a psychotherapist three times a week, took anti-depressants, and underwent rehabilitation.

Gradually, very slowly, she began to return to normal life, but it was impossible to recover completely.

The scars remained forever, both physical and psychological.

Both girls gave detailed testimony to the Polish prosecutor’s office.

Their testimony was forwarded to the Egyptian authorities for the criminal prosecution of the kidnappers.

In Egypt, a case was opened under articles on kidnapping, human trafficking, and unlawful deprivation of liberty.

More than 10 people were arrested.

members of two Bedawin families who held the girls, intermediaries who organized the sale, and the guide Ahmed, who was finally found in February 2022.

He was tracked down by the cell phone he used to communicate with his relatives.

He was arrested in Cairo, where he was hiding with friends.

The investigation in Egypt lasted about a year.

Evidence was gathered, witnesses were interviewed, and expert examinations were conducted.

The case was complicated because most of the events took place in remote areas without witnesses, documents, or records.

The main evidence was the testimony of the victims themselves and the confessions of some of the defendants.

Salah, the old man who had been holding Kasia for the last few months, partially admitted his guilt.

He said that he had bought the girl to work on his farm, not realizing that it was a crime.

In his understanding, it was a normal transaction.

The other defendants denied all guilt, claiming that they knew nothing about the abduction and that the girls had come to them voluntarily.

The defense of the defendants was based on the assertion that Bedawin traditions allow for the purchase of workers.

That this is not slavery in the legal sense, but a form of employment contract, albeit unofficial.

The lawyers pointed out that the girls were provided with food and shelter in exchange for work, which is common practice in desert areas.

However, the prosecution insisted that the girls were held against their will, deprived of their freedom of movement, and forced to work without pay, which constitutes slavery according to the Egyptian penal code and international conventions.

The key defendant was the guide Ahmed.

He organized the kidnapping, lured the girls into the desert under the guise of a tourist excursion, and received money from the kidnappers.

During interrogations, he initially denied everything, claiming that he had simply taken the tourists to the village at their request and that they had then decided to stay on their own.

But investigators found records of bank transfers to his account in the period after the kidnapping, and the amounts did not match his official income.

They also found correspondence in a messenger app with one of the kidnappers where the details of the deal were discussed.

Under pressure from the evidence, Akmed began to testify.

He said that he had been working for a criminal network that had been kidnapping tourists for several years.

His job was to find suitable victims, mainly young women traveling without men, lure them into the desert, and hand them over to the kidnappers.

For each successful operation, he received between $2 and $3,000.

Over 3 years, he organized the kidnapping of seven female tourists from different countries.

Kaza and Magda were the last on the list.

This information shocked the investigators.

It meant that there were other victims.

The prosecutor’s office began checking data on missing female tourists for the period from 2018 to 2021.

They found five cases where foreign women had disappeared in the Herata area under similar circumstances.

Two of them were from Ukraine, one from Romania, and two from Russia.

All of them had come on vacation, taken excursions to the desert, and then disappeared without a trace.

Their cases had been closed as accidents or voluntary disappearances.

It is now clear that they may all have been victims of the same criminal network.

The Egyptian authorities launched a large-scale operation to search for these women.

They used information from Ahmed and other arrested individuals, combed through desert areas, and checked hundreds of Bedawin settlements.

Within 3 months, from March to May 2022, three more women were found.

A 28-year-old Ukrainian woman was discovered in a settlement 100 km from the city of Safaga.

She had spent 2 years in captivity working for a Bedawin family and her mental state was critical.

The second girl, a 23-year-old Russian, was found in the area between Hurada and Elusair.

She had been held captive for a year and 4 months.

The third, a 31-year-old Romanian, was discovered by chance during a police raid on another case.

She had been in slavery for 3 years and 2 months, longer than anyone else.

Her physical and psychological condition was so severe that she required prolonged hospitalization.

The other two women on the list were not found.

According to the testimony of Ahmed and other defendants, one of them died in captivity from illness about a year after her abduction.

The second was sold across the border to Sudan, and her further fate is unknown.

The Egyptian prosecutor’s office sent a request to the Sudin authorities, but no response was received.

At that time, Sudan was experiencing an internal political crisis following a military coup, and international cooperation was minimal.

The trial of the defendants began in July 2022 in the Herata Criminal Court.

The case was heard by a panel of three judges.

13 people were in the dock.

Ahmed, the guide, members of Bedwin families who kept the girls, and intermediaries who organized the sale.

The charges included kidnapping, human trafficking, unlawful deprivation of liberty, and forced labor.

The maximum punishment for these crimes was life imprisonment.

The trial lasted 3 months.

The prosecution presented extensive evidence, victim statements, confessions from some of the defendants, bank records, messenger app correspondents, and witness testimony.

The defense attempted to challenge the victim’s testimony, claiming that they were under stress and could have been mistaken about the details.

It tried to portray the Bedawin defendants as simple people who did not understand the law and lived according to ancient traditions.

But the facts were irrefutable.

Expert examinations confirmed that the girls were kept in conditions that met the definition of slavery.

Medical reports showed signs of prolonged physical labor, malnutrition, and violence.

On October 23rd, 2022, exactly 18 months after the kidnapping, the court announced its verdict.

Akmed received a 25-year prison sentence.

This was the harshest sentence given his central role in organizing the crimes.

The heads of the Bedawin families who bought the girls received sentences ranging from 15 to 20 years.

The intermediaries received sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years.

The wives of the heads of the families who directly controlled the girls and forced them to work received sentences ranging from 7 to 12 years.

All the defendants were ordered to pay large fines which were to go to the victims as compensation.

Although it was almost impossible to collect this money in reality as most of the convicted had no property.

The sentence was harsh by Egyptian standards.

Usually cases involving Bedawins were dealt with more leniently taking cultural characteristics into account.

But in this case, international pressure and public outcry forced the court to hand down an exemplary punishment.

The defense filed an appeal, but in February 2023, the appeals court upheld the sentence, only slightly reducing the terms for some of the minor figures involved.

This story shows the dark side of the tourism industry, which is rarely discussed openly.

Every year, millions of people travel to exotic countries, entrusting their safety to local companies and guides.

Most return home with wonderful memories.

But there are those who encounter a reality where human life has a price, where criminals exploit the trust of tourists for profit.

The case of Kasi and Magda has become a symbol of this problem.

A reminder that even in popular tourist destinations, there are dangers that many are unaware of.

48 hours after a 26-year-old British woman demanded the termination of her marriage contract with a Dubai shake and threatened to contact the consulate, her body was found in the pool of a 12 million villa.

The official version was that it was an accident, but the pathologist recorded bruises on her neck and signs of strangulation before she entered the water, after which he was dismissed, and the family received $2 million in compensation on condition that they never demand the exumation of the body.

The story began a year before the tragedy when a young woman from a small town in Essex County received an offer that seemed like a salvation from debt and uncertainty.

She worked as a mid-level model, participated in shoots for online clothing stores, advertised cosmetics on Instagram, and sometimes received contracts for shows and shopping malls.

Her income was unstable, around 2 to3,000 a month in good times, sometimes less.

She rented a room in a flat with two roommates in the eastern part of London in the Hackne area, paying £700 for a tiny bedroom with no windows.

She had accumulated about $18,000 in credit card debt, the result of several years of trying to maintain the image of a successful model by buying designer clothes, paying for professional photooots, and traveling to events in the hope of getting contracts.

The agency she worked with took 30% of her earnings and there were still no real big contracts.

She was 25 years old and began to realize that her career was not turning out the way she had dreamed it would when she was 18.

The offer came through a friend, another model who had been working in the Persian Gulf countries for several years.

They met in a cafe in Shor Ditch in November 2024.

Her friend looked successful, carrying a bag worth several thousand, wearing an expensive watch, talking about trips to Monaco and the Maldes.

When asked about the secret of her success, she explained a system called temporary marriage or contract marriage.

The scheme was simple.

Wealthy men from the Gulf countries, mainly the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, were looking for young, attractive European women for short-term marriages.

These were completely legal marriages formalized through Muslim Sharia courts, but with a contract that specified all the terms in advance.

Typically, the term was 1 to 3 years with payments ranging from $200,000 to $800,000 depending on the client’s requirements and the woman’s attractiveness.

The woman received a luxurious life, a villa or apartment, a car, and a monthly allowance.

In return, she had to attend social events as a wife, travel with her husband, and be available whenever he wanted.

My friend explained that this was not prostitution in the classic sense.

It was a legal marriage with all the paperwork.

The men wanted status, a western beauty on their arm to show off to friends and business partners.

Many of them were already married to local women, sometimes having three or four wives according to Islamic law, but they wanted another one, a European one, as a symbol of wealth and influence.

The contract protected both parties.

The woman received a guaranteed payment and the man received a guarantee that she would not demand more money or try to remain in the marriage after the term ended.

When the British woman heard the figure of $500,000 for 2 years, her first reaction was disbelief.

It seemed too good to be true.

Her friend showed her her contract as an example and explained the process.

The agency in Dubai specialized in such arrangements, operated semi-legally, and had connections with lawyers and Sharia judges.

Women were selected, provided photos and information about themselves, and underwent medical examinations to confirm their health.

Men chose from a catalog, made video calls, and sometimes invited them to a personal meeting before making a final decision.

The process took several weeks.

First registration with the agency, sending a profile with photos and information, then waiting.

The agency contacted the client when he showed interest.

This was followed by a video call, a conversation through an interpreter if the client did not speak English, and a discussion of expectations.

If both parties agreed, a personal meeting was arranged.

Usually, the man paid for the woman’s flight to Dubai, put her up in a hotel, and they met several times during the week.

If everything was satisfactory, a contract was signed.

The British woman thought about it for 2 weeks, discussed with her parents, although she did not tell them the whole truth, only that she had just received an offer to work in Dubai as a personal assistant to a wealthy businessman.

Her parents were against it, saying that it was dangerous, that the culture there was different, that women were treated badly there, but she was burdened with debt, had no prospects, and half a million dollars could completely change her life.

She could pay off all her debts, buy an apartment, invest the rest, and start a normal life.

In early December 2024, she registered with the agency.

The process was surprisingly professional.

The agency’s office was located in a modern business center in the Dubai Marina area with bright rooms and European staff.

The agency’s director, a 40-year-old British woman who had worked in the Emirates for 15 years, explained all the details.

She did not hide the risks.

She explained that the laws there were different, that women’s rights were limited, and that in the event of a conflict, the courts usually sided with the men.

But she emphasized that the contract provided some protection, that most clients complied with the terms, and that in 10 years of operation, the agency had not had any serious incidents.

The medical examination included standard blood tests, a drug test, a check for infections, and a gynecological examination.

Everything was paid for by the agency, and carried out in a private clinic.

The results showed excellent health.

The photo shoot was professional, several hours in the studio, different looks from everyday clothes to evening dresses.

The photographer was polite and everything went smoothly.

The profile was activated a week later.

The agency explained that the process could take anywhere from a few days to several months, depending on how well the woman matched the client’s requests.

In her case, interest was shown quickly.

4 days later, the agency called and said that the client wanted to make a video call.

The client was a 52-year-old man, a member of the extended royal family of one of the Emirates, and the owner of several real estate and construction companies.

His fortune was estimated at over $300 million.

He had three wives, 15 children, and homes in Dubai, London, and the south of France.

He spoke English with a strong accent, but quite fluently.

The video call lasted about 40 minutes.

He asked questions about her life, interests, and education.

He asked if she was prepared to live according to certain rules, to wear modest clothing in public places, not to drink alcohol in his presence, and to accompany him to business events and family gatherings.

He explained that he was looking for a young European wife for status, that his business partners from Europe and America had a better attitude towards someone with a western wife.

This shows openness and modernity.

He made no secret of the fact that this was a marriage of convenience on both sides, that there would be no love, but there would be respect and a comfortable life.

The offer was specific, $500,000 for 2 years of marriage.

The payment was divided into four installments of 125,000 payable every 6 months.

The first installment would be paid after the official registration of the marriage.

a villa in the Jira area, a car, and a monthly allowance of $10,000 for personal expenses.

No obligations after the end of the two years.

The divorce would be finalized automatically according to the terms of the contract.

No possibility for the wife to terminate the contract early without losing all payments and returning the money already received.

The husband has the option to terminate at any time with payment of the remaining amount.

She agreed almost immediately.

The figures were too attractive.

The agency arranged a personal meeting in a week, paid for a business class flight to Dubai, and booked a room in a five-star hotel.

They met three times in 5 days.

The first meeting was in the hotel restaurant, a formal, polite conversation over dinner.

The second meeting was in his office where he showed her the contract and explained all the points through an English-speaking lawyer.

The third meeting was at the villa that was to become her home so she could see the living conditions.

The villa was truly luxurious, a three-story building with six bedrooms, a swimming pool, a garden, and a view of the sea.

The furniture and appliances were all new and expensive.

There was a separate bedroom for her, a walk-in closet the size of a regular room, and a bathroom with a jacuzzi and shower.

The staff included a maid, a gardener, and a cook, all working full-time.

The contract was 23 pages long, written in Arabic and English.

The agency’s lawyer, who represented her interests, explained each point.

The main terms were as follows.

A 2-year marriage from the date of registration.

Automatic termination upon expiration if the parties did not agree to extend it.

Payment of $500,000 in four installments of 125,000 every 6 months.

The first installment within 48 hours after the marriage was registered.

Accommodation in a villa provided a car at her disposal, a monthly allowance of $10,000.

The wife’s obligations included attending social events at her husband’s request, living in the villa, observing the rules of modesty in dress in public places, no work without her husband’s consent, no public statements about the nature of the marriage.

A critical clause stated that the wife had no right to demand a divorce or termination of the contract before the expiration of the 2-year term.

Any attempt to do so would result in the immediate cancellation of the contract, the loss of all future payments, and the obligation to return all money already received within 30 days.

The husband has the right to terminate the marriage at any time at his discretion with payment of the full remaining amount.

In the event of the wife’s pregnancy, the contract is automatically extended until the birth of the child plus 6 months with an additional payment of $250,000.

The child remains with the father after the divorce in accordance with Sharia law.

The lawyer emphasized several times that these were very harsh conditions, especially regarding the impossibility of early termination by the wife.

He explained that in the event of a conflict, local courts always side with the man and that the British consulate has no authority to interfere in legal marriages registered under local law.

He asked if she was sure she wanted to sign such a contract.

She answered in the affirmative.

The marriage was registered on December 23rd, 2024 in a Sharia court in Dubai.

The ceremony took about 30 minutes and was conducted in Arabic with translation into English.

Two witnesses were present on the husband’s side and a representative of the agency on the wife’s side.

The Imam read the marriage contract.

They both signed it and the process was complete.

She officially became his fourth wife according to Islamic law.

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