RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal jury convicted on Friday three members of a Virginia family of conspiring to coerce another family member to perform domestic services by verbally assaulting and physically abusing the victim over 12 years, according to a federal prosecutor.
Zahida Aman, 80; Mohammed Rehan Chaudhri, 48, and Mohammad Nauman Chaudhri, 54, each were convicted of conspiracy to commit forced labor, Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a news release.
Evidence and court records showed that in 2002, the victim married Aman’s son and the brother of defendants Nauman and Rehan Chaudhri. The woman lived in the home of the defendants, and over the next 12 years, the three defendants forced her to perform domestic services.
The victim, a native of Pakistan, had temporary immigration status in the U.S., but Aman took the victim’s immigration documents and also threatened her with deportation if she didn’t obey their demands, prosecutors said. The defendants also threatened to separate the victim from her children to coerce her labor, according to the news release.
A sentencing date for the three has not been set yet.
