WASHINGTON, 3 July 2006 — A jury found a Saudi citizen guilty Friday of sexually abusing an Indonesian housekeeper and imprisoning her in his suburban home for four years — a verdict that caused loud cries of anger and sorrow from family and friends inside the packed courtroom.
The jury deliberated about 7 hours before convicting 37-year-old Homaidan Al-Turki, linguistics doctoral candidate at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, of 12 counts of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, threats or intimidation, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, criminal extortion and theft.Some of those counts were reductions of the sexual assault and kidnapping charges Al-Turki had faced.
However, he still faces between 8 years and life in prison for each of the sexual contact counts at his sentencing on Aug. 31, prosecutor spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh said.Al-Turki’s attorney, John Richilano, said he would appeal the conviction, but declined further comment. Richilano had argued that cultural differences were at the heart of the charges.
Authorities say for four years Al-Turki kept the 24-year-old Indonesian woman as a slave in the family home, forcing her to cook and clean and take care of the family and their five children with little pay.
Prosecutors say Al-Turki eventually intimidated the woman into sex acts that culminated in her rape in late 2004. An affidavit said she was paid less than $2 a day.
During the trial, Richilano told jurors the woman lived under the same customs as other women in the Al-Turki household.
She chose to sleep on a matress in the family’s unfinished basement so she could have privacy. And she voluntarily accepted the clothing and other restrictions the family imposed because she wanted to send money home to her impoverished relatives, he said.
The defense said many of the allegations were simply misconstrued cultural differences, or what attorney John Richilano called “cynical Islamophobia,” and said the woman made up stories about sexual assault to get out of trouble with federal authorities for overstaying her visa.
Al-Turki is being held without bail in jail until his sentencing.
Al- Turki’s wife, Sarah Khonaizan, 35, pleaded guilty last year to state and federal charges of theft and harboring an illegal immigrant. Khonaizan plea agreement was in exchange for avoiding jail sentences and was deported to Saudi Arabia, her lawyers said.
The 2 1/2-week trial ended in drama in the courtroom, with as many as nine sheriff’s deputies trying to keep peace while Al-Turki’s supporters howled at the verdict that was delivered after a day of deliberation.
Al-Turki, wearing a white robe, at first showed little emotion — touching his left index finger to his nose — as Judge J. Mark Hannen read the verdicts.
But after the jury left the courtroom, Al-Turki began to sob and hug his family and friends.
Al-Turki still faces federal charges of harboring the nanny, whose visa had expired, and underpaying her. His attorney, Dan Recht, refused to comment on the verdict, other than to say they will appeal. He said the Saudi Embassy offered to defray the expenses.
