Houston-Area Woman Admits To Forced Labor Of Worker

HOUSTON (AP) – A Sugar Land woman is going to prison and must pay back earnings to a domestic employee who received only $320 for several years of work.

A federal judge in Houston on Thursday sentenced 43-year-old Rozina Mohd Ali to one year and one day in prison, plus ordered nearly $73,000 in restitution.

Ali pleaded guilty to forced labor-related charges involving a woman from Indonesia.

Prosecutors say Ali had the Indonesian woman do her domestic work for practically no money at all, plus withheld the worker’s passport.

The worker, whose name was not released, fled the Ali household last August.

She had been employed by Ali, first in Malaysia, since August 2002 and was in the U.S. on a temporary visitor’s visa.

Ali has been in federal custody without bond.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)