N.Y. Slavery Case Nears Conclusion

Two Indonesian housekeepers were subjected to "punishment that escalated into a cruel form of torture," a prosecutor said Monday in closing arguments at the trial of a millionaire couple charged with modern-day slavery.

"This did not happen in the 1800s," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Lesko said. "This happened in the 21st century. This happened in Muttontown, New York."

Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, and his wife, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45, have pleaded not guilty to all charges in a 12-count federal indictment, including conspiracy, peonage, or involuntary servitude, and violations of immigration law.

They are accused of bringing two Indonesian women to the United States to work as housekeepers and enslaving them in their Long Island mansion, sending $100 to $150 a month home to their families but subjecting them to repeated psychological and physical abuse and forcing them to work 18 hours or more a day.

Lesko said Enung and Samirah were good mothers who "wanted ... more for their families" than they could earn in their native country, reports Newsday.

Enung has nine children living in Indonesia and Samirah five.

The Sabhnanis, who operate a worldwide perfume business out of their home, were arrested in May after one of the servants, Samirah, wearing tattered clothes, was found wandering outside a doughnut shop, pleading for help after apparently escaping while taking out the trash. The second housekeeper, Enung, was found hiding in a basement closet after authorities searched the mansion based on Samirah's claims later that day.

Government investigators compounded the situation by failing to submit all the devices allegedly used in the torture, including a knife and bamboo broom, to detailed laboratory analysis for blood, hair and skin samples, attorney for Mahender Sabhnani Stephen Scaring said, reports Newsday.

The Sabhnanis' defense attorneys have said the two women concocted the story of abuse as a way of escaping the house for more lucrative opportunities. They contend the housekeepers practiced witchcraft and may have abused themselves as part of an Indonesian self-mutilation ritual.

They also argue the couple went on frequent vacations that would have given the two women ample opportunity to flee.

But Lesko on Monday recapped testimony by the women, alleging years of abuse that included being forced to eat as many as 100 chili peppers a day and then being forced to eat vomit after becoming sick from the peppers. Samirah went to the Sabhnani home with the promise of work in 2002, and Enung followed in 2005.

The physical abuse was primarily inflicted by Varsha Sabhnani, prosecutors said, after the servants were caught sleeping late or committing other infractions, including failing to ask permission before performing domestic duties. The women also claimed to have been poorly fed and testified that they were punished after being caught stealing food from family trash bins.

Enung testified that Samirah's nude body once was covered in plastic wrapping tape on orders from Varsha Sabhnani, who then instructed Enung to rip it off.

"When I pulled it off, she was screaming," the housekeeper said.

Although Varsha Sabhnani was identified as the primary culprit in inflicting punishment, Lesko noted that Mahender Sabhnani is charged with the same crimes, including conspiracy, because he allowed the conduct to take place in his home.

"Ask yourself who is worse," Lesko said. "The twisted soul who tortures maids or the man of the house who lets it happen?"

Defense attorney Jeffrey Hoffman led Varsha Sabhnani by the hand to the jury box and introduced her to jurors before commencing his closing.

He referred to complaints by the maids in letters to relatives in Indonesia as "gross exaggerations," and he contended they made the claims to get better-paying jobs in the United States. He and his colleague, Stephen Scaring, who represents Mahender Sabhnani, noted that during cross-examination Enung said she could not remember if she had cut Samirah's ears with a knife the day she left the Sabhnani home.

The more sophisticated Enung got Samirah to go along with the scheme because Samirah believed in magic and "she hated Varsha because she believed Varsha killed her child by putting a spell on him," Hoffman said, according to Newsday.

Enung, attorneys say, encouraged Samirah to leave and make the claims of abuse.

"She doesn't remember if she took the knife and cut Samirah before she left?" Hoffman asked jurors. "How astounding. Talk about reasonable doubt. It fills the courtroom with doubt."

If convicted, the Sabhnanis, who have four children, could face 40 years in prison.

They are free on $4.5 million bail and are being kept under house arrest, paying an estimated $10,000 a day for round-the-clock security monitoring. The Sabhnanis - he is from India, and she is from Indonesia, but both are naturalized U.S. citizens - spent nearly three months in jail before a bail arrangement was reached after prosecutors argued they were a flight risk.

Closing arguments were expected to conclude on Tuesday, after which U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spatt will instruct the jurors on the law before they begin deliberating.