Article link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7148530.stm

A wealthy US couple have been convicted of keeping two Indonesian women as slaves in a New York home and abusing them physically and psychologically.
Indian-born Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, and his wife, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45, could face up to 40 years in prison.

They were found guilty on 12 charges, which included involuntary servitude, harbouring aliens and forced labour.

The couple's lawyer said he would appeal against the verdict.

The wealthy couple, who run a perfume business and have four children, had brought the women to their large house to work as housekeepers, and forced them to work up to 18 hours per day.

The couple were arrested after one of the women was found wandering the streets dressed in only trousers and a towel.

Regular beatings

Prosecutors described the case as "modern-day slavery".

They described how the two Indonesian women had been punished for misbehaviour such as sleeping late and stealing food from the dustbin to supplement their meagre meals.


Varsha Sabhnani and her husband had pleaded not guilty
The women said they had been beaten with brooms and umbrellas, slashed with knives, made to take freezing showers and climb stairs repeatedly.

One said she had been forced to eat several hot chillies and then her own vomit.

"Apparently, the jury was taken by the histrionics (of the Indonesian women)," defence lawyer Jeffrey Hoffmann told AP.

Lawyers for the accused had argued that the housekeepers practiced witchcraft and may have abused themselves.

They had said the couple spent a lot of time abroad and that the two Indonesian women would have been free to leave whenever they wanted.

The pair were described as "model citizens" who wanted only to clear their names.

The women, identified as Nona and Samirah, arrived in the US legally in 2002 but had their passports confiscated by the Sabhnanis, officials said. Their visas have since expired.

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40 years. PWNED.

Good! They got what they deserved for what they did to those two women.

i read this article on the train going to work. this couple need to get the maximum sentence under the law WITHOUT the possibility of parole.

US court should have sold them to India as slave.

I hope they both get raped in prison.

unbelievable.

All those Oil wallahs in Dubai, who rape/beat their maids, should get some pointers from them. lol, they left the country and those broads were still too scared to leave the house, that's ownage.

Actually the fu-ktard oil-rich Arabs are the biggest slave owners in the world.

I saw a documentary that was just aweful. They bring women from all over Asia to work for next to nothing. They get taken advantage of sexually as well.

Everything about those people is fu-ked up. From their ugly religion and language to their way of life.

$hitholes like Dubai are also the world's largest importers of child sex slaves.

that's some fuked up sh-it......those ain't hillbilly rednexs but rich motherfukers.....yes it's hard to believe but then again nothing surpise me ......which is why even if i was rich i wouldn't have servants or sh-it like that .......you can't trust anyone

someone re-temp ban this @$$hole.

Agree!! truth hurts.

It's sad, but migrant workers often experience these kind of things. They leave their family and friends way back home, hoping to get a better live, only to be robbed off their dignity and humanity

I hope those pathetic excuse for human beings rot both in jail and hell!

The indian woman is actually indonesia-born.. she tortured her fellow ex-citizens..

Does Indonesia have Jus Soli or whatever?

How the fu-k do you become a slave like that in America?

I suppose its the same way that people end up as "Gimps"?

(Probably it was some where in some backwooded area of the U.S.)

Indian-born?
Must be muslims.

by their names, they are hindus.

was there another case like this?

fu-king rich ppl think that can do what ever!

Why?

I think Bulldog is one of the resident anti-Muslites.