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11-yr Jail Term for Harbouring Illegal Bangladeshi Maid

A Los Angeles restaurant owner was sentenced on Tuesday to more than 11 years in prison for holding an illiterate Bangladeshi woman captive for five years.

Nur Alamin, the owner of the Great Star of India restaurant on 3rd Street, was also ordered to pay $125, 819 to the woman, Shaefeli Akhtar.

Last January, 40-year-old Alamin was convicted of one count of conspiracy and two counts of involuntary servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant. His wife, Rabiya Akhter, 32, pled guilty to harboring an illegal alien on the eve of her trial and will most likely get one year in jail at her sentencing next Monday, prosecutors said.

"We are pleased with [Alamin's] sentence and it will send a message to others out there that the exploitation of immigrant workers will not be tolerated and will be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Assistant US Attorney Caroline Wittcoff.

According to authorities, the couple held Akhtar, who is in her late 20s, against her will and forced her to work without pay as a maid servant at their residences in Koreatown and Anaheim and at their restaurant.

Akhtar had previously worked for Akhter's family in Bangladesh and was smuggled into the United States through Saudi Arabia. She escaped the couple's home on June 30, 2000, after she received a beating. The Immigration and Naturalization Service, the United States Department of Labor and the Federal Bureau of Investigation all launched an investigation into her allegations which resulted in the criminal court case.

At trial, Akhtar testified that her employers' physically and sexually abused her, refused to pay for her work, made her sleep on the kitchen floor and said they would kill her if she tried to leave. Neighbors corroborated her stories of the vicious beatings she received at the couple's hands.

Wittcoff said Akhtar must remain in the country until the legal proceedings are fully adjudicated.

Alamin has filed an appeal which will not be resolved any time soon. Meanwhile, Akhtar is being helped and housed by several local organizations including the Coalition Against Slavery and Trafficking and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. After the cases are resolved, Wittcoff said, she may ask the INS for asylum in the United States or return to Bangladesh.

(Compiled from press reports)

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