Prosecutors in slave case challenged
Saudi man's lawyers say charges a cover for terrorism probe
John Aguilar, Rocky Mountain News
Published February 22, 2006 at midnight
Lawyers for a Saudi man said they want to know if federal prosecutors pursuing criminal charges against their client for allegedly turning an Indonesian nanny into a virtual slave are looking for a backdoor way to link him to terrorist groups.
Homaidan Al-Turki, who is accused of keeping the nanny in his Aurora home against her will and paying her little, has been a "person of interest" to federal authorities since 1995 for "having ties to terrorist organizations," his lawyer, John Richilano, said Tuesday in federal court.
"We contend that despite the government's protestations that this is a mere criminal case, it is not," Richilano said. "It is a terrorist case."
Al-Turki and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, face federal charges of forced servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant. The couple also have been charged in Arapahoe County District Court with kidnapping.
Al-Turki faces additional charges in state court of sexually abusing the nanny.
Richilano filed a motion with the court seeking access to federal government documents from past investigations of his client. He said he wanted to find out what "is motivating the filing of these charges" in the forced labor case.
Dan Recht, another lawyer for Al-Turki, said the federal government has not succeeded in proving that his client has ever had connections to terrorist groups.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brenda Taylor denied that the government is being underhanded about the charges it is pursuing against Al- Turki.
"This case has nothing to do with any other investigations of Mr. Al- Turki," Taylor told the judge.
She did not address whether any of those investigations were terrorism-related.
Taylor said the government does not see the need to hand over to the defense documents related to other investigations of Al-Turki because the information is not relevant to the case involving the Indonesian nanny and prosecutors don't plan to introduce it at trial.
But Richilano referred the judge to FBI reports of witness interviews connected to the forced labor case that are stamped with a federal code normally associated with terrorism-related investigations.
Richilano also said federal investigators interviewed the nanny about a dozen times before she told them she had been sexually abused by Al- Turki.
Richilano said that authorities wouldn't stop pursuing the nanny until she gave them information with which they could build a case against Al-Turki.
U.S. District Judge Walker Miller agreed to review some of the documents the defense is seeking to determine what relevance they may have to the criminal charges Al-Turki and his wife are facing.
Another hearing on the matter is scheduled for March 15.
The couple go to trial in federal court April 24.
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