15-year-old denies her older sister pimped her

Undercover cops apprehended the older sister, 28, in October for allegedly pimping her 15-year-old sister, who is considered a minor. The older sister has been detained for over a month and her bail application has been denied, lawyer Kajornsuk Benkhai said, adding that the human-trafficking charge was too severe and inaccurate. 
“On the day they were arrested by police officers in disguise, the official contacted [the younger sister] directly [for sexual services], not her older sister,” the lawyer said. 
The 15-year-old sister reiterated that it was she, not her older sister, who had persuaded the other to sell sexual services in October when they were arrested. 
She said a man contacted her to arrange for two women who would be paid Bt1,600 each, so she asked her sister to go along. When they met the customers at a resort near the Sakhon Nakhon-Kalasin bypass, a drunk customer refused services from her sister. She then walked into another room alone and was met with four officers, she said.
Both sisters were arrested and taken to Muang Sakon Nakhon Police Station and the 28-year-old was charged with human trafficking. 
The younger sister said both of them worked in the sex industry and had plied their trade together on four or five occasions. The 15-year-old said she was in desperate need of money for her baby and to cover family expenses. 
“It was me who persuaded my sister,” she said. “I needed the money to pay for milk and diapers for my baby. I didn’t think my sister would be charged with human trafficking. We did not regularly sell sexual services, we only did it when it was very necessary,” she said. 
The 53-year-old mother, a Sakhon Nakhon resident, said she did not know her daughters were working in the sex trade until they were arrested, adding that it saddened her but she believed the charge was too severe.
The two sisters will hand in letters to related agencies in Bangkok to seek justice, Kajornsuk said.