THE charges against two city nightclub owners, alleging that they indulged in recruiting prostitutes were dismissed yesterday after prolonged trials.

One of those freed, by Acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, is Raymond Alli, owner of the Red Dragon nightclub on Robb Street, Georgetown, who faced a charge of procuring a woman to become a common prostitute.
He had been on $250,000 bail since he first appeared in court on September 7, 2011.
After taking evidence from two witnesses, the magistrate ordered Police Inspector Stephen Telford, prosecuting, to close his case.
Defence counsel Lance Ferreira made a no-case submission, arguing that the prosecution has no evidence against Alli, but the magistrate held there was not sufficient.
Particulars of the indictable offence had alleged that Alli, between November 2010 and June 29, 2011, at Red Dragon, procured a woman to become a common prostitute.

Thrown out
Similar charges against Brazilian national Maria Mascimento were also thrown out in the same court.
Mascimento, 39, of Lot 33 Cummings Street, Alberttown, in Georgetown, too, had faced five charges on September 6, 2011 and was on $1M bail. She was charged with recruiting five different women, at Club Copa Cabana, to become common prostitutes.
Prosecutor Telford had called three witnesses and attempted to have a caution statement attributed to the accused admitted as testimony.
However, the magistrate rejected the testament on the ground that there was no nexus, explaining that the prosecutor should have produced, as a witness, the interpreter who wrote the document in Portuguese.
Defence counsel Arun Gajraj contended that the attestation was not free and voluntary and Nascimento did not sign because of her dissatisfaction with it.
The prosecutor maintained that the statement was given freely and voluntarily but, after hearing arguments from both sides, the magistrate ruled in favour of the defence and dismissed all the charges, declaring that the evidence led did not satisfy the court.