According to the DOJ, “A federal court sentenced a Virginia family to prison for conspiracy to commit forced labor for compelling the domestic labor of a Pakistani woman for 12 years.” Zahida Aman, 80, and her two sons, Mohammed Naumman Chaudhri, 54, and Mohammed Rehan Chaudhri, 48, were convicted by a jury in May.
Prosecutors say the Virginia family physically and verbally abused the woman from 2002 to 2014:
According to the evidence presented in court, the defendants compelled the victim 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 labor in their home.The evidence further showed that the defendants required the victim to work every day, beginning early each 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.
The family was forced to pay $250,000, but that doesn’t seem like it would be enough for the 12 years of forced labor and abuse the victim received. Zahida Aman was sentenced to 144 months, Mohammed Rehan Chaudhri to 120 months, and Mohammad Nauman Chaudhri was sentenced to 60 months.
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