Homaidan Al-Turki (1969- ), is a Saudi national who was convicted of crimes against an Indonesian woman whom he held as a slave in his Aurora, Colorado home. Before his arrest, he was a bookstore owner and a graduate student in linguistics.
During the trial, the woman testified that the Al-Turki family had brought her to Colorado from Saudi Arabia, and that she lived with them in Aurora for four years during which she worked 7 days a week, was sexually abused by Al-Turki and had her $150 a week salary and passport withheld by the family. She also testified that she was locked in an unheated basement and slept on a bare mattress when she was not working[1]. During the trial Al-Turki said that, "The restrictions that placed on her contact with non-relative males was also the same as those applicable to my daughters and to other Muslim women in our community. You cannot ask somebody from a different religion to be American to the fullest. You cannot ask them to go dancing, go to the bars. We are Muslim. We are different. The state has criminalized these basic Muslim [sic] behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution."[2]. The state believed this was a case of human trafficking. Al-Turki was convicted of 12 counts of unlawful sexual contact with force, one count of theft of services over $15,000, false imprisonment and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.
The case was a high profile one in Saudi Arabia, where the press portrayed him as a victim of bias against Muslims and said that he would not have been convicted in his own country. The Saudi government gave Al-Turki $400,000 to post bail. In November 2006, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers travelled to Saudi Arabia where he met with King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan to clear up "misperceptions" about the U.S. judicial system. His trip was sponsored by the US State Department. Al-Turki's wife, Sarah Khonaizan, who plead guilty to reduced state and federal charges, is to be deported from the US. [3] Following the state conviction, federal charges against Al-Turki were dropped. [4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homaidan_Al-Turki
Monday, May 26, 2008
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