Pakistani family has been jailed in the USA for torturing their daughter-in-law and keeping her as the slave for the family 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 Chaudhry, 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 defendant’s criminal conduct,” the court ruling reads.
Aman arranged the marriage of her son with the woman in Pakistan in 2002. The family did not allow a woman to move to Pakistan despite her husband moving away from her.
“These defendants callously exploited the victim’s vulnerabilities and brutally coerced her labor through physical violence and emotional abuse,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
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As per the evidence, the convicts forced the woman to serve them as domestic servants. They confiscated her money, and immigration documents and lessened her contact with her family in Pakistan. She was threatened to be separated from her children and deported to Pakistan.
The family member also “slapped, kicked and pushed the victim, even beat her with a 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 family also restricted food shortage, did not allow them to learn to drive, and restricted her communication with outsiders. She was only allowed to talk to family members.
The three offenders were convicted after a seven-day trial in May last year. The court notes the offenders blatantly violated the vulnerability of the victim.