Charity Organization «Rescue girls from Dubai» Sold French Victim to Sheikh
…
Seline was happy.
Her friends were a little jealous, saying that she was lucky to have met such an interesting and successful man.
True, some noted that the age difference was significant and that it was strange that a man like Antoine was still unmarried and did not have a serious relationship, but Seline dismissed these doubts, explaining that he was simply very busy with business and had not yet met the right person.
At the end of May, Antoine asked Seline to accompany him on a business trip to Dubai.
He said that there would be meetings with suppliers, but they would also have free time to see the city, sunbathe on the beach, and stay in a luxury hotel for a few days.
Seline was hesitant.
She had never been to the Middle East, and although the idea seemed tempting, something inside her made her doubt.
She talked to her mother and Isabelle, although happy that her daughter had met someone who treated her well, expressed caution, asking Selene to be careful and not to rush into such serious steps.
In the end, Selene decided to agree, but on the condition that the trip would be short, only 4 days from June 20th to 24, and that she would stay in constant contact with her family.
On June 20th, 2022, Seline and Antoine flew to Dubai on an Emirates flight from Leon Santexuperi Airport.
Seline was in high spirits, taking photos at the airport, messaging her friends, and sharing her impressions of the business class cabin where Antoine had bought tickets.
They arrived in Dubai late in the evening, local time, and were met by a driver with a sign who took them to the luxurious Burj Alarab, the famous seven-star hotel in the shape of a sail.
Standing on an artificial island, Selene was amazed by the luxury of the room, the view of the Persian Gulf, and the service that anticipated every desire of the guests.
She called her mother on video chat, showed her the room, said that everything was wonderful, that Antoine was taking care of her, and that she was happy.
The first two days were like a fairy tale.
Antoine did go to business meetings, but they were short and they spent most of their time together, walking around shopping malls, going up to the Burj Khalifa observation deck, sailing along the coast on a yacht, dining in restaurants with views of fountains and skyscrapers.
Seline kept in touch with her family, sending photos, and everything seemed perfect.
But on the evening of June 22nd, something changed.
Antoine told Selene that he had an important meeting at a party on the yacht of one of his main clients, a wealthy shake, and that it would be good if she went with him.
Her presence would help make an impression and strengthen business relations.
Seline didn’t really want to go to a party with strangers, but she agreed to support Antoine.
The party was held on a huge yacht mored in a private marina.
When they arrived, there were already many guests there, men in expensive suits and traditional Arab clothing, women in evening gowns, most of whom were clearly professional models or escorts.
Music was playing, champagne and cocktails were flowing, and the atmosphere was relaxed and even a little loose.
Seline felt out of place, especially when she noticed that many of the men were openly staring at her, and Antoine, instead of staying close to her, was engrossed in conversation with a group of Arabs in business suits and paid little attention to her.
After an hour at the party, Seline already wanted to leave.
One of the guests, an elderly man with a heavy accent, who introduced himself as a friend of the Shakes’s family, persistently tried to talk to her, offered her drinks, put his hand on her waist, and when she politely refused, and walked away, he followed her.
Selene found Antoine and said she wanted to go back to the hotel because she felt uncomfortable.
Antoine was clearly annoyed, saying that they couldn’t leave so early, that it would be rude, and asked her to be patient a little longer.
Seline agreed, but with every passing minute, she felt a growing sense of unease.
She went out on deck to get some fresh air, took out her phone, and texted her friend in lion.
I want to get out of here.
Something’s wrong.
These people are strange.
At that moment, a woman approached her and introduced herself as Ila, an employee of the international charity Sanctuary Ubes or Spaseni as it was called in Russian.
Ila was an elegant woman in her 40s, impeccably dressed, speaking with a slight accent, possibly Lebanese or Egyptian.
She said she noticed that Seline looked confused and uncomfortable, and asked if everything was okay.
Seline, grateful for the concern, admitted that she wanted to leave, but her companion insisted that she stay.
Ila nodded understandingly and said, “You know, I often see girls in your situation at events like this.
Many come here with men who promise them paradise, but then reality turns out to be completely different.
If you need help or just advice, here’s my business card.
Our foundation helps women who find themselves in difficult situations here in the Middle East.
Selene took the card which read Sanctuary Foundation helping women find freedom with a UAE phone number and email address.
She thanked Ila, put the card in her purse and returned to the hall where Antoine was already looking for her.
Clearly unhappy that she had left.
They stayed at the party for about two more hours, during which time Selene caught the glances of several men who were discussing something while looking in her direction, and once saw Antoine talking seriously with an elderly Arab man in a white dish dasha, both of them looking at her.
When they finally left, it was already past midnight.
And on the way back to the hotel, Antoine was silent and tense, completely unlike the charming and caring man she had known for the past 2 months.
Back in her room, Seline took a shower and went to bed, but she couldn’t sleep.
Something about that party, about Antoine’s behavior, about the looks on those people’s faces, made her feel truly afraid.
She took out her phone and started searching for information about the Sanctuary Foundation.
Their professionally designed website stated that the organization had been in existence since 2015, helping women who had suffered from domestic violence, human trafficking, and exploitation in the Middle East, organizing their evacuation to safe countries, and providing legal and psychological assistance.
The website featured photos of happy women, success stories, thank you letters, and information about partners and donors, including several large international organizations and individuals.
Everything looked completely legitimate and trustworthy.
Seline calmed down a little, thinking that perhaps she had just been overexited and fell asleep.
On the morning of June 23rd, Antoine was cold and distant.
At breakfast, he told Seline that he had meetings all day and that she could spend her time at the hotel spa or on the beach and that they would have dinner together in the evening.
Seline agreed, glad to have some time alone to collect her thoughts.
After Antoine left, she tried to call her mother, but the connection kept breaking up, either because of internet problems at the hotel or for some other reason.
She went to the beach, but couldn’t relax, her thoughts constantly returning to the party the night before.
By lunchtime, she had decided that she wanted to leave Dubai earlier than planned, that she no longer felt safe with Antoine, and that she needed to find a way to return home on her own.
Selene returned to her room around 2:00 in the afternoon and found Antoine already there along with the two men she had seen yesterday on the yacht.
The atmosphere was tense and when she entered all three turned to her and there was something in their eyes that made her blood run cold.
Antoine said with a fake smile, “Seline, meet my partners.
They need to ask you a few questions.
” One of the men, a large middle-aged Arab, approached her and took her by the arm, his grip tight and painful.
Seline tried to break free and screamed, but the second man quickly covered her mouth with his hand, and they dragged her back into the room, closing the door behind them.
Seline never told the whole story of what happened next, even after she was rescued.
But from her statement to the police, it became known that she was held in the room for several hours, told to calm down and listen, and threatened that if she did not cooperate, she would never see her family again.
Antoine, dropping his charming businessman persona, explained the real situation to her.
He worked for a network that supplied women to wealthy clients in the Middle East.
And Seline had been chosen by one such client who had seen her photos on social media and was willing to pay a significant amount of money.
She was to be handed over to this man tonight, and if she resisted, she would simply be drugged and taken away unconscious.
” Antoine said this calmly, without emotion, as if he were discussing a routine business deal.
And it was this coldness, this complete lack of humanity in his words that shocked Seline more than the threats themselves.
At one point, when the men were distracted discussing the details of the transfer, Seline managed to discreetly take her phone out of her purse, which was lying on the chair.
She only had a few seconds, and she couldn’t call without attracting attention.
She remembered the Sanctuary Foundation’s business card and quickly found their contact information on the internet.
With trembling fingers, she sent a message to the foundation’s email address.
Help.
I am being held at the Burge Alra Hotel, room 2314.
They want to sell me.
French citizen Seline Dubois.
Please help.
She managed to press send and hide the phone back in her bag a second before one of the men turned to her.
The next two hours were a nightmare.
The men forced her to take a shower, change into a dress they had brought, and put makeup on her by force while one of them held her hand the whole time to prevent her from escaping.
Antoine checked her purse, took her passport, money, and credit cards, but did not find the phone, which Seline had managed to hide under the mattress of the bed.
Around 6:00 in the evening, they were about to take her out of the hotel when there was a knock at the door.
The men exchanged glances, and Antoine went to the door and opened it on the chain.
Standing outside was Ila from the sanctuary foundation accompanied by a man in a private security guard’s uniform.
Ila said calmly, “We have received a message from Madmoiselle Dubois that she needs help.
I represent an international women’s rights organization accredited by the UAE government and I have the authority to evacuate citizens who are in danger.
If you don’t open the door, I will have to call the police.
” The men clearly did not expect this turn of events.
They conferred among themselves in Arabic and Antoine before opening the door quickly whispered to Seline.
If you say anything, your family will suffer.
We know where they live.
Then he opened the door completely, feigned surprise, and said, “What a misunderstanding.
Madmoiselle Dubois is my fianceé.
We are here on vacation.
She may be nervous about the upcoming wedding.
Ila entered the room, approached Seline, and quietly asked in French, “Did you send the message?” Seline, trembling all over, nodded.
Leila turned to the men and said, “Madmoiselle Dubois asked for help, and we are obliged to provide it.
If this is indeed a misunderstanding, then you won’t mind if she talks to me alone.
” Antoine wanted to object, but the security guard who was with Ila, an imposing man, took a step forward, and Antoine gave in.
Ila led Seline into the hallway and they went into the next room, which, as it turned out, had been reserved by the Foundation.
When the door closed, Seline burst into tears and told Ila everything.
how Antoine had brought her to Dubai under the pretext of a business trip.
How his behavior had changed at the yacht party.
How today he and two other men had held her in the room and said they were going to sell her to a wealthy client.
Leila listened attentively, recording on a dictapone with Selen’s consent.
And when she finished, she hugged her and said, “You’re safe now.
We deal with cases like this.
You need to leave Dubai as soon as possible, and we will help you do that.
But it has to be done properly and safely, otherwise these people will find you.
She explained that they couldn’t just take Seline to the police because some of these networks had connections in law enforcement and that the best way was to arrange a quiet evacuation through the foundation’s private channels.
Selene agreed to everything Leila suggested.
She had no choice.
She was in a foreign country without documents, without money, in a state of shock and panic.
Ila said they needed to act quickly that tonight they would move her to a safe haven outside Dubai and tomorrow they would arrange for her to fly to Europe with new documents which the foundation would obtain through its connections.
Selene asked if she could call her mother, but Ila gently but firmly dissuaded her, explaining that any calls could be traced and that it was better to wait until she was safe.
We’ll send a message to your family on your behalf to let them know you’re okay, but let’s get you out of here alive first.
Okay.
Seline, exhausted and frightened, agreed.
At around 7:00 pm on June 23rd, Leila and the security guard took Seline out of the hotel through a service exit to avoid encountering Antoine and his accompllices.
A black Range Rover SUV with tinted windows was waiting for them.
Another man, who did not introduce himself, was sitting behind the wheel.
Selene sat in the back seat with the car drove out of the city toward the desert.
On the way, Ila continued to reassure Seline, gave her water, and offered her a headache pill, which Seline took without suspicion.
After 20 minutes of driving, Seline began to feel strangely sleepy.
Her eyelids grew heavy, and she could barely keep her eyes open.
The last thing she remembered before losing consciousness was Ila’s face, which suddenly became cold and indifferent, and her words, “Sleep, dear.
When you wake up, everything will be different.
It was at that moment at 3:00 in the afternoon, Paris time, that Selen’s mother, Isabelle, received that very message.
Mom, I’m safe.
The foundation helped me leave.
I’ll tell you everything soon.
I love you.
The message came from Selen’s phone, but it was actually sent by Ila using the phone that had been taken from Seline.
Isabelle was puzzled.
Her daughter wrote about some foundation about how they helped her leave but from what? She was in Dubai on vacation with Antoine.
What could have gone wrong? Isabelle tried to call but Seline’s phone was turned off.
She wrote several messages but there was no reply.
She called Antoine but his number was also unavailable.
Her anxiety grew, but Isabelle tried to calm herself, thinking that since Seline had written that she was safe, everything was fine, and she would soon get in touch again and explain everything.
But the days passed, and there was no news from Seline.
Isabelle called the Burj Alarab Hotel, but they said that guests named Selen Dubois and Antoine Bernard had checked out on June 23rd without leaving any contact information.
She contacted her daughter’s friends, but no one knew anything.
On June 28th, exactly 5 days after Seline’s disappearance, Isabelle filed a missing person report with the Lion Police.
An investigation was launched and detectives quickly determined that Antoine Bernard was not who he claimed to be.
His real name was Amen Hadad, a Lebanese citizen with a French residence permit, and he had a criminal history involving fraud and human trafficking.
He was already known to Interpol as a suspect in several cases of young women disappearing in Europe, who were later found in the Middle East in forced prostitution rings.
Selene Dubois’s case was referred to Interpol and a special unit of the French police dealing with human trafficking.
Investigators contacted the UAE authorities and requested information about the Sanctuary Foundation, which according to Selen’s last message, she had contacted for help.
And this is where things started to get strange.
The Sanctuary Foundation was indeed registered in Dubai as a nonprofit organization, had a professional website, an office in one of the city’s business centers, and even several publications in the local media about their charitable activities.
But when the police tried to contact the fund’s management, it turned out that the office had been empty for several months.
The phones were not answering and the website, although still functioning, had not been updated since March 2022.
Further investigation revealed a shocking truth.
The Sanctuary Foundation was a fake organization created specifically to lure victims of human trafficking who were trying to escape their traffickers.
The scheme was diabolically cynical and effective.
Agents of the network, such as Ila, attended parties and events where potential victims were present and specifically approached those who looked confused or frightened, offering help on behalf of the charitable foundation.
Girls who found themselves in danger and desperately seeking a way to escape saw the foundation as their last hope and trusted them, not realizing that they were actually falling from the hands of one trafficker into the hands of another.
Even more dangerous, it turned out that the real owner of the sanctuary fund was not some altruistic philanthropist, but a man named Khaled Al-Mansour, a member of an influential business family from the UAE with connections in the oil industry and real estate.
Formerly, Khaled was a respectable businessman, a donor to various charitable projects, a man with an impeccable reputation.
But behind this facade lay a different reality.
Khaled was the organizer and financiier of a complex human trafficking network that operated not only in the UAE but also in other countries in the Persian Gulf, North Africa and Eastern Europe.
His clients were wealthy and influential people willing to pay huge sums for exclusive goods, young educated women from Europe and America who could not simply be bought on the street or in a brothel.
After several months of investigation, in November 2022, investigators managed to establish contact with a former employee of the foundation, a woman named Nadia, who worked as an evacuation coordinator and who decided to cooperate with the police in exchange for protection and a new identity.
From Nadia’s testimony, investigators learned the horrific details of what happened to the victims of the Sanctuary Foundation.
After the girls were rescued, they were given sleeping pills or sedatives and transported while unconscious to remote villas in the desert or other emirates where they were kept in isolation.
They were deprived of their documents, phones, and any means of communication with the outside world.
Meanwhile, messages were sent to their families and friends on their behalf, saying that they were safe and starting a new life, which explained the lack of real contact.
But the most horrific thing was the information about what happened to some of these girls.
Next, Nadia said that there was an inner circle of Khaled’s clients, people with special perverted preferences who paid not just for sex or even slavery, but for something much darker.
These clients had access to a closed platform on the darknet where they could watch the victims in real time, give instructions on how to treat them, and vote on various actions.
The platform operated on cryptocurrency which made transactions virtually untraceable.
Nadia did not know the technical details of how the platform worked.
But she saw some of the girls before and after their participation in these sessions and said that they came out broken in a state of deep shock, many with physical injuries.
What exactly happened to Selene Dubois after she lost consciousness in the car remains unknown.
Nadia did not remember her case, specifically among the dozens of other girls who had gone through the system, but investigators based on Nadia’s testimony and other sources were able to partially reconstruct what had happened.
Seline was most likely taken to one of the networks villas in the Emirate of Russ Alka, where she was held in an isolated room.
Messages were sent to her family on her behalf, creating the appearance that she had been safely evacuated and was in the process of moving to another country.
Over the course of several days, she was likely being prepared to participate in one of the closed sessions for special clients.
Seline’s fate remains under investigation.
In December 2022, 6 months after her disappearance, a short entry appeared on the Sanctuary Foundation website in the success stories section.
Selene D, a French citizen, was successfully evacuated from a dangerous situation in Dubai and is now starting a new life in a Scandinavian country where she has been granted asylum.
We wish her all the best in her new beginning.
This post was dated June 28th, 2022, just 5 days after Seline’s disappearance, and was the only clue indicating that the Foundation wanted to give the impression that she had been safely rescued.
But no real evidence that Seline is alive and in Scandinavia or anywhere else has ever been found.
In January 2023, an international operation cenamed Mirage, coordinated by Interpol and the special services of several countries, led to the arrests of many members of Khaled al-Mansour’s network in the UAE, Lebanon, Turkey, and France.
Aminad, also known as Antoan Bernard, was arrested in Beirut while preparing a new operation to recruit victims.
Leila Hussein, the fund’s evacuation coordinator, and 17 other people associated with the network were also arrested.
Khaled al-Mansour himself, using his connections and influence, managed to leave the UAE before his arrest and according to intelligence services, is hiding in one of the countries that does not have an extradition treaty with most Western states.
During a search of the network’s villas and premises, evidence of crimes was found, computers with records of cryptocurrency transactions, correspondence with clients, and video recordings that investigators described as extremely disturbing and indicative of serious crimes against humanity.
23 victims from different countries, France, Italy, the UK, Russia, Ukraine, and the US were identified.
All young women between the ages of 18 and 30 who disappeared under similar circumstances between 2018 and 2022.
11 of them were found alive in various locations within the network in serious physical and psychological condition.
They were given medical and psychological assistance and repatriated to their countries.
The fate of the remaining 12 victims including Selene Dubois remains unknown.
Among the materials found were remnants of the platform’s work on the darknet.
Although the site itself had been shut down and cleared by administrators before the police arrived, cyber criminologists were able to recover some data and discovered that the platform actually functioned as a closed auction where participants could bid on various actions performed on the victims.
Bets were accepted in cryptocurrency, most often in Monero or Bitcoin, and the amounts ranged from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars per session.
The highest bids were for so-called final sessions, a term whose meaning investigators prefer not to disclose publicly, but which apparently refers to participation in actions leading to the death of the victim.
Trials of arrested members of the network began in various countries during 2023.
Amin Hadad was sentenced in France to 30 years in prison on charges of kidnapping, human trafficking, and involvement in murder, although the victim’s bodies were never found.
Leila Hussein received 25 years in the UAE for participating in an organized criminal group and human trafficking.
The other accompllices received various sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years.
During the trials, surviving victims testified about their horrific experiences, although most of them were unable or unwilling to reveal all the details due to trauma and fear of possible retaliation from members of the network or their clients who were still at large.
Selene’s mother, Isabelle Dubois, attended all the court hearings in France.
She gave interviews to several media outlets, calling on governments to strengthen controls over so-called charitable organizations operating in high-risisk areas for human trafficking and to establish international mechanisms to verify the legitimacy of such funds.
She founded her own foundation named after Seline, which works to educate young women about the risks of traveling with strangers and the signs of human trafficking networks.
When asked if she believes her daughter is still alive, Isabelle replied, “I want to believe, but every day it becomes more difficult.
I just want to know the truth about what happened to her, where she is, so that I can either hug her again or at least bury her properly and find peace.
” In April 2024, almost 2 years after Selen’s disappearance, Isabelle received an anonymous package.
Inside was a flash drive containing only one folder dated 0623 2022, the day her daughter disappeared.
Isabelle immediately handed the drive over to the police.
It contained log files from a closed platform on the darknet used by Khaled’s network.
Among the records was a profile with the initials SD and a photo in which despite the poor image quality, Seline could be recognized.
The records are dated from June 24th to June 28th, 2022 and contain brief descriptions of the sessions in which the victim participated, the amounts of the bets, and the cryptographic hashes of the transactions.
The last entry is dated June 28th, 900 pm local time in the UAE, and is marked final session completed, archive closed.
The police are not releasing the contents of these files publicly out of respect for the family and the memory of the victim, but law enforcement sources speaking on condition of anonymity have confirmed that the contents indicate that Selene Dubois likely died during the last session on June 28th, 2022, just 5 days after her disappearance.
The body has never been found and probably never will be.
Testimony from Nadia and other witnesses indicated that the network had established methods for disposing of bodies, including dissolving them in acid or burying them in remote desert areas where they would never be recovered.
On July 17th, 2024, what would have been Selene’s 25th birthday, a French court officially declared her dead based on the body of evidence presented by investigators.
Isabelle held a private memorial service in Lion, attended by friends, relatives, and people who were simply moved by the story.
There was no coffin at the ceremony, only a photograph of Seline, a smiling, vibrant young woman with the Eiffel Tower in the background, taken a year before her tragic trip to Dubai.
In her speech, Isabelle said, “My daughter dreamed of changing the world for the better, working in international organizations, helping people.
Instead, she fell victim to those who use people’s trust and kindness as a weapon against them.
I don’t want her story to be forgotten.
I want every girl, every woman to know that even organizations that call themselves saviors can be wolves in sheep’s
