Saudi Slavery in Colorado
Charles Johnson
Tue Aug 1, 2006 at 7:10 pm PDT • Views: 323
Woman jailed in housekeeper slavery case. (Hat tip: Morganfrost.)
CENTENNIAL, Colo. - A woman was sentenced to two months in jail Tuesday for effectively stealing the services of an Indonesian woman who prosecutors said was held as a virtual slave for four years.
Sarah Khonaizan, 35, a Saudi citizen who lives in suburban Denver, also was ordered on the theft charge to pay $90,000 in restitution and was ordered not to have any contact with the 24-year-old woman.
Last week, a federal judge sentenced Khonaizan to five years’ probation and ordered her to pay $26,275 in restitution after pleading guilty to harboring an illegal immigrant. Her attorney, Forrest Lewis, has said she wants to return to Saudi Arabia and will not fight deportation.
Prosecutors and FBI agents accused Khonaizan and her husband, Homaidan Al-Turki, 37, of hiding the woman’s passport and forcing her to care for the family for four years. She slept on a mattress on the basement floor and was paid less than $2 a day, according to testimony.
Al-Turki was convicted in June of sexually abusing and imprisoning the woman. He faces a federal trial in October on other charges in the case.
Frank says: