US couple who abused help lose court plea

New York: A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the convictions of a suburban New York couple accused of enslaving two Indonesian housekeepers, finding they received a fair trial in a case that put a spotlight on domestic worker abuse in America.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected arguments by attorneys for India-born Mahender and Indonesia-born Varsha Sabhnani that sought to overturn their forced-labor convictions. It also ordered a recalculation of restitution requiring each of them to pay $936,546 to their victims. The appeals court found that the lower court judge erred in awarding overtime pay.

Varsha Sabhnani's lawyer had argued that prejudicial publicity prevented a fair trial. Her husband's lawyer argued that he did not actively take part in hurting the women. Neither lawyer immediately responded to a message on Wednesday.

The appeals court said in its written ruling that it was rejecting arguments by lawyers for the couple that all victims of crimes like peonage and forced labor are vulnerable and therefore none are particularly so.

Varsha Sabhnani is serving an 11-year prison sentence. Her husband, who has been free on bail pending appeal, was ordered by the appeals court to begin serving his three-year sentence next week.

The husband and wife were each required to pay the restitution to their victims and to forfeit their ownership interest in the home where the victims had been held.

Perfume-maker Mahender Sabhnani, 53, a US citizen who was born in India, and his wife, a U.S. citizen born in Indonesia, had lived in Syosset, New York, with their four children.

At a seven-week 2007 trial, a jury found that the couple conspired to enslave two domestic servants the couple brought from Indonesia by keeping their travel documents and having them perform forced labor on their behalf.

Prosecutors said Varsha Sabhnani was primarily responsible for inflicting years of abuse on the poorly educated servants, who testified they were beaten with brooms and umbrellas, slashed with knives, and forced to climb stairs if they slept late or took food from trash when hungry.

They said her husband let the abuse take place and benefited from the work the women performed in their $2 million Long Island home.

The jury convicted the couple of various counts of harboring, peonage, forced labor and document servitude.