DENVER – A Saudi Arabian couple accused of keeping an Indonesian woman as a virtual slave have agreed to pay her $64,000 in back wages, according to a court document.
If approved by the court, the deal filed Tuesday in federal court would settle a lawsuit by the Labor Department against Homaidan Al-Turki and Sarah Khonaizan and avoid a federal trial.
State and federal charges alleged the couple required the woman to cook, clean and care for the couple's five children in suburban Aurora for little or no pay from 2000 to 2004.
Prosecutors have also alleged that Al-Turki sexually abused the woman and that she was sometimes loaned out to work for other families.
A federal trial was set for October on charges of forced labor, involuntary servitude and harboring an illegal immigrant.
The couple would still face a state trial, set for June 12, on charges of kidnapping, false imprisonment and extortion, and, for Al-Turki, sexual assault. They face up to life in prison if convicted on the state charges.
Al-Turki's attorneys have argued that prosecutors charged him after trying but failing to build a terrorism case against him.
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