Feds drop charges against Al-Turki

Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 7, 2006 at midnight

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The U.S. Attorney's office filed a motion today to dismiss federal charges against Homaidan Al-Turki, the Saudi Arabian man convicted in state court in June of keeping an Indonesian nanny as a sex slave.

Al-Turki, who had been living in Aurora, was sentenced earlier this month to 28 years in prison for the crime.

In its motion, the U.S. Attorney's office said further prosecution was "not deemed necessary." Assistant U.S. Attorney Brenda K. Taylor also said dropping the federal charges would spare the victim from having to testify again about "the most intimate personal matters."

During the trial in Arapahoe County District Court, the 24-year-old victim was on the witness stand for more than five days.

She testified she worked seven days a week and was paid $150 a month. She said Al-Turki and his wife kept most of that money, that Al-Turki took her passport and that he repeatedly sexually abused her.

The Rocky Mountain News is withholding the nanny's name because she is a sexual assault victim. She now lives in Aurora.

At his sentencing, Al-Turki said he would not apologize for "things I did not do and for crimes I did not commit."

"The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors," he told the judge. "Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution."

Al-Turki was found guilty of 12 counts of unlawful sexual contact with force, one count of theft of services over $15,000, false imprisonment and conspiracy.

His attorneys have argued that the federal government began investigating Al-Turki as long ago as 2002, in an attempt to build a terrorism case against him. They said the government filed the sex slave charges after it was unable to make a terrorism case.

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