Saudi couple charged with enslaving Indonesian
Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News
Published June 10, 2005 at midnight
A Saudi Arabian couple is charged in federal court with keeping an Indonesian woman in her early 20s as a virtual slave in their Aurora home for four years while the husband regularly raped her.
A federal grand jury in Denver returned an indictment Thursday against Homaidan Al-Turki, 36, and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, 35. Both were living legally in the United States and are now in custody.
The two allegedly forced the Indonesian woman, whom they brought with them to the United States in 2000 when she was a teenager, to sleep on a mattress on the basement floor.
She performed domestic labor including cooking, cleaning and child care for little or no pay, according to the indictment.
The woman was controlled by "creation of a climate of fear and intimidation through aggravated sexual abuse and other means, intended to cause (her) to believe that, if she did not continue to perform such labor and services, that she would suffer serious harm . . ." the indictment said.
The couple also hid the woman's passport, it said.
Both are charged in Colorado U.S. District Court with forced labor, document servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant.
Al-Turki, if convicted, faces up to life in prison because the accusations against him included aggravated sexual assault, according to Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the Colorado U.S. attorney's office.
The federal government also is seeking to seize the couple's assets, including bank accounts in the name of Al-Basheer Publications and Translation, and seeks an additional judgment of $92,700 for the value of the woman's forced labor.
Al-Turki is charged in state court with 12 counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping and one count each of false imprisonment and extortion.
His wife is charged in state court with kidnapping, false imprisonment and extortion.
abbottk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5188
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