Indian-born Varsha Sabhnani and her husband, Mahender Sabhnani, were convicted in December of forced labour, peonage, harbouring aliens, document servitude and conspiracy in what prosecutors called "a case of modern-day slavery."
Mahender Sabhnani was due to be sentenced on Friday, also by Judge Arthur Spatt, at U.S. federal court in Central Islip, on New York state's Long Island.
Defence lawyers had argued that the victims made up the story and were delusional.
The couple, owners of an international perfume manufacturing and distribution business, had kept the two Indonesian women in their home in Muttontown, New York.
Prosecutors said the couple, both U.S. citizens, brought two women, identified only as Samirah, 51, and Enung, 47, to the United States from Indonesia with promises to pay $200 a month for housekeeping duties.
Instead, the women testified, they were beaten with brooms, scalded with hot water and forced to eat hot chilli peppers as well as forced to carry out household duties. Both were forced to sleep on mats and had to steal food to get enough to eat, prosecutors said.
4.6 million Ethiopians urgently need food aid, Unicef says
"Children are already dying, adults as yet are not," Hilde Johnson, deputy director of Unicef, said in an interview in Geneva after a visit to Ethiopia, adding that the situation threatens to deteriorate in the two to three months before the next harvest is due.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/26/africa/26ethiopia.php
*********************
More rains hit flooded U.S. Midwest
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/06/26/america/OUKWD-UK-USA-FLOODING.php
Oil rises past $140 a barrel, setting a record
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/26/business/26oil.php
*****************
BP blames high oil prices on tight production
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/06/26/business/OUKBS-UK-BP-OIL-SUPPIES.php
********************
EU strikes deal to cap airline emissions
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/26/business/26emit.php
****************
Airline group says EU CO2 deal "unaffordable"
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/06/26/business/OUKBS-UK-EU-ENVIRONMENT-AVIATION-IACA.php
****************
Brown launches "green revolution" energy plan
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/06/26/business/OUKBS-UK-BRITAIN-ENERGY.php
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/26/europe/fuel.php
Kristof: Books, not bombs
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/26/opinion/edkristof.php
3 U.S. marines among 30 killed in 2 Iraq bombings
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/26/mideast/iraq.php
Somalia conflict kills more than 2,100 this year
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/06/26/africa/OUKWD-UK-SOMALIA-CONFLICT.php
AIDS a growing global "disaster"
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/06/26/africa/OUKWD-UK-DISASTERS.php
1,300 feared dead in wake of typhoon in the Philippines
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/26/asia/phils.php
1 comment:
Beautiful staircase.
Post a Comment