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A New Jersey woman was sentenced Thursday for forcing a Sri Lankan woman to work without pay for nine years, forcing her to go beyond her visa and marry her to try to keep her in the country.
A jury said the accused, Alia Imad Faleh Al Hunaity, 43, guilty of forced labor, foreigners housed for profit and fraudulent marriage. The jury deliberated for two hours after a six-day trial before Judge Robert B. Kugler of the US District Court in Camden.
Prosecutors did not name the victim, who they said was taking care of the woman's children and cleaning her house, and was largely hidden from the outside world. They said that she came to the United States on a temporary visa in 2009.
"The defendant in this case treated the victim as a slave," said US lawyer Craig Carpenito in a statement from the Justice Department. "Al-Hunaity illegally kept the victim in this country and hid her in order to force her to do housework for Al-Hunaity without pay, without privacy or without being able to move freely."
Robert Kovic, a lawyer for Ms. Al-Hunaity, said that he and his client had challenged the prosecution's claims.
"The evidence presented was far from proving the government's claims," he said in an email, adding that the prosecutor's claims had been rejected "not only by Ms. Hunaity, but also by the alleged victim herself." .
In court documents, federal prosecutors said that Ms. Al-Hunaity, a naturalized US citizen from Jordan, was divorced from the father of her children. They stated that the victim had worked for Ms. Al-Hunaity's parents in Jordan before coming to the United States.
"Hunaity forced the victim to cook and clean his homes in Woodland Park and Secaucus, New Jersey, and take care of his three children, all without pay," Justice said in his release. . "It has further limited the victim's interactions with the world outside of Hunaity homes. Meanwhile, Hunaity asked the victim to sleep on a bed in a public space in Hunaity homes, including the kitchen. "
Ms. Al-Hunaity will be sentenced on September 4. The charge of forced labor is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
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