US court sentences Virginia family for forced labour of Pakistani woman

• Evidence shows victim was compelled to serve Virginia family as domestic servant. 
  
• Documents say accused slapped, kicked, and pushed Pakistani woman.
  
• She was also threatened to be separated from her children to coerce her labour.

VIRGINIA: A court in the United States sentenced three family members for using a Pakistani woman as forced labour and physically and mentally abusing her for 12 years.

“Zahida Aman, 80, was sentenced to 144 months in federal prison, Mohammed Rehan Chaudhri, 48, to 120 months in federal prison and Mohammad Nauman Chaudhri, 55, to 60 months in federal prison in the Eastern District of Virginia. Additionally, the Court ordered Aman and Rehan Chaudhri to pay the victim $250,000 in restitution for back wages and other financial losses she incurred as a result of the defendants’ criminal conduct,” said a statement issued by the US Justice Department.

The Justice Department said that Aman, Rehan and Nauman were convicted following a seven-day trial in May of last year. The jury had declared the three of conspiracy to commit forced labour, convicted two of the defendants of forced labour and convicted Aman of document servitude.

“These defendants callously exploited the victim’s vulnerabilities and brutally coerced her labour through physical violence and emotional abuse,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. 

“Human trafficking is an affront to human rights and to our nation’s core values. The Department of Justice is committed to vindicating the rights of survivors and bringing human traffickers to justice.”

“Human trafficking is a global issue that cannot be tackled alone,” said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “The FBI will remain committed to investigating all forms of human trafficking and work with our law enforcement partners in combatting the problem.”

Zahida Aman had arranged for her son’s marriage to the victim in 2002, but even after the victim’s husband moved away from the home, the defendants kept the victim in their Virginia home to serve the extended family.

The US Justice Department said that evidence showed that the victim was compelled by the convicts to serve the family as a domestic servant, using physical and verbal abuse, restricting communication with her family in Pakistan, confiscating her immigration documentation and money and eventually threatening to separate her from her children by deporting her to Pakistan.

“The defendants slapped, kicked and pushed the victim, even beat her with wooden board, and on one occasion hog-tied her hands and feet and dragged her down the stairs in front of her children. All of these coercive means were employed by the defendants to compel the victim’s labour in their home,” said the statement.

The evidence also showed that the convicts forced the victim to work every day from early morning.

“They restricted her food, forbade her from learning to drive or speaking to anyone except the defendants’ family members and prohibited her from calling her family in Pakistan,” said the Justice Department.