Jun 13, 2006 8:15 pm US/Mountain
Jury Selection Begins For Man In Slavery Case
AURORA, Colo. (AP) ―
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Homaidan Al-Turki and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, are accused of enslavement.
CBS4
Jury selection began Tuesday in the case of a Saudi man accused of repeatedly raping an Indonesian woman he and his wife kept as a virtual slave for four years in their suburban Aurora home.
Opening arguments were expected Wednesday, prosecutors said.
Homaidan Al-Turki, 37, a Saudi citizen, is charged with two counts of kidnapping, 12 counts of sexual assault, extortion, theft and false imprisonment and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
His wife, Sarah Khonaizan, 35, pleaded guilty to state and federal charges of theft and harboring an illegal immigrant and faces up to a year in prison when she is sentenced in July and August. She has agreed to return to Saudi Arabia after completing her sentences, her lawyers have said.
Prosecutors and FBI agents said the couple brought the woman to Colorado to care for their five children and to cook and clean for the family. An affidavit said she slept on a mattress on the basement floor and was paid less than $2 a day.
State prosecutors also alleged that Al-Turki sexually assaulted the woman repeatedly. The Associated Press is not identifying her because of the sexual assault allegations.
Al-Turki also faces an October federal trial on charges of forced labor, document servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant.
In April, Al-Turki and Khonaizan agreed to pay the nanny about $64,000 in wages to settle a Labor Department lawsuit.
Al-Turki, a linguist, worked at a Denver publishing and translating company and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Colorado. He is free on bond.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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