SUVA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A 31-year-old woman, Seeta Sanjana Ram, appeared in the Fijian court on Monday and was charged with 35 counts of various offences, 16 of which involve allegations of human trafficking.

Ram, of Nasole in Nasinu, 20 minutes drive out of Fiji's capital Suva, is charged alongside her sister Geeta Anjana Chandar, an Australian resident.

Presiding Magistrate Waleen George granted an application by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for an arrest warrant for Chandar who was charged in absentia with similar offenses.

The ODPP will work with Interpol to extradite Chandar from Australia to answer to the charges of human trafficking as well as money laundering and obtaining property by deception.

The two sisters had been operating a travel agent business from Nina Street in Suva, and allegedly have placed an advertisement in one of the dailies about employment opportunities in New Zealand.

The two are then alleged to have facilitated the travel of 17 Fijian citizens who were exploited through slavery and became victims of human trafficking in New Zealand's Auckland between April to August of 2014.

Both suspects had remitted and received more than 83,000 Fijian dollars (39,000 U.S. dollars) to and from an accomplice Faroz Ali who was convicted in New Zealand last year for human trafficking offences.

The case against the two sisters has been transferred to the Suva High Court. Enditem

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