A Thai woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday for her involvement in forcing a 12-year-old Thai girl to offer sexual services at a massage parlor in Tokyo, saying she was unaware of the child¡¯s age.

Punsiripanya Phakhaphon, 39, is being tried before the Tokyo District Court for acting as a broker between the girl¡¯s mother and the massage parlor owner located in Tokyo¡¯s Yushima area who hired the girl.

She was arrested in January for violating the child welfare act and later in February for violating the immigration control act, having made the girl overstay her tourist visa to work at the parlor.

In the first hearing held on Wednesday afternoon, she said through an interpreter that the facts regarding the case were ¡°not all true.¡± Her defense attorney said Phakhaphon never met the girl and was not aware of her age.

Dressed in formal suit attire, she looked straight at the judge as she listened and answered the prosecutor.

Phakhaphon, who worked as a manager at the store, is thought to be responsible for recruiting 30 to 40 Thai women to work at the parlor. She denied the allegations that she was a human-trafficking broker.

The case came to light last September, when the Thai girl escaped from the parlor and sought help at a Tokyo immigration center.

She came to Japan on a tourist visa with her mother in June, but the mother left the country shortly after, leaving the girl behind at the parlor. The girl reportedly had been forced to offer sexual services to around 60 customers in the month she was working at the store.

The mother, who had worked with Phakhaphon in the past at the parlor, contacted her last June saying she wanted to work there again.

Masayuki Hosono, the Japanese owner of the massage parlor, is also on trial over his involvement in the case. Hosono also pleaded not guilty in his first trial hearing in March, claiming Phakhaphon told him that the girl was not underage and that he was unaware of her actual age, according to media reports.

After the Thai girl was taken into custody, she returned to her home country in December. Her mother, who had been detained in Taiwan, was arrested by Thai police upon her return to the country in December.