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Woman in slavery case allegedly violated bond
By John Aguilar, Rocky Mountain News
November 22, 2005

ARAPAHOE COUNTY - A Saudi woman charged with enslaving an Indonesian nanny at her Aurora home violated the condition of her bail when she illegally contacted the victim last month, according to prosecutors.

Sarah Khonaizan, 36, will be advised of her bail violation at a hearing today.

Prosecutor Ann Tomsick, with the 18th Judicial District, said Khonaizan had a discussion with the victim Oct. 14, in violation of a restraining order forbidding her to contact the woman.

Tomsick wouldn't describe the nature of the conversation.

Both Khonaizan and her 37-year- old husband, Homaidan Al-Turki, stand accused of bringing the Indonesian woman to the U.S. in 2000 to work as their nanny and then keeping her as a virtual prisoner in their Aurora home for several years.

Prosecutors, and the woman herself, have accused the couple of grossly underpaying and preventing her return to Indonesia by withholding her passport.

Khonaizan and Al-Turki face state kidnapping charges, in addition to federal charges of forced labor, document servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant.

A federal trial for the couple has been set for April.

Al-Turki faces additional state charges of sexual assault.

The Indonesian woman testified in September that Al-Turki repeatedly assaulted her in the basement of his home, where she slept. Lawyers for the couple deny that the woman was held against her will.

John Richilano, a lawyer for Al-Turki, has argued that the nanny, who is Muslim, agreed as part of her employment contract with the family to abide by Muslim customs that discourage women from venturing out in public by themselves.

The couple were scheduled to be arraigned in district court Monday, but the judge postponed the hearing until January, pending the outcome of Khonaizan's bond violation charge.

Khonaizan has been working out a plea deal with the prosecution, but Tomsick wouldn't comment Monday on the status of those negotiations.