Centennial – Attorneys in the trial of a man accused of raping and kidnapping an Indonesian housekeeper prepared to make their closing arguments today after hashing out jury instructions.
Homaidan Al-Turki, 37, of Saudi Arabia is charged in state court with kidnapping, sexual assault, extortion, theft and false imprisonment. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors have said Al-Turki held the 24-year-old woman as “an invisible prisoner” at his Denver home.
The defense has said the woman made up stories about sexual assault to get out of trouble with federal authorities for overstaying her visa.
Prosecutors and FBI agents have said Al-Turki and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, brought the woman to Colorado to care for their five children and to cook and clean for the family. An affidavit said she spent four years with the family, sleeping on a mattress on the basement floor and getting less than $2 a day.
She was arrested on immigration charges in November 2004 and placed in a safe house, and she later reported the alleged assaults to a woman who had befriended her.
The Associated Press is not identifying the woman because of the sexual assault allegations.
Khonaizan, 35, pleaded guilty to state and federal charges of theft and harboring an illegal immigrant and faces up to a year in prison when she is sentenced in July and August. She has agreed to return to Saudi Arabia after completing her sentences, her lawyers have said.
Al-Turki also faces an October federal trial on charges of forced labor, document servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant.
Al-Turki, a linguist, worked at a Denver publishing and translating company and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Colorado. He is free on bond.
