Houston Woman Pleads Guilty to Forced Labor Charges

Houston Woman Pleads Guilty to Forced Labor Charges

HOUSTON - Rozina Mohd Ali pleaded guilty and was sentenced today in federaldistrict court in Houston, Texas, for her role in holding an Indonesian woman inforced labor as a domestic servant, the Justice Department has announced. Underthe terms of the plea agreement, Ali, 43, of Sugarland, Texas, will spend oneyear and a day in prison and will pay the victim $72,676 in restitution.

“The defendant forced a hard-working Indonesian woman to do her domestic workfor practically no money at all,” said Grace Chung Becker, Acting AssistantAttorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Throughthis guilty plea, the defendant admitted that she threatened the victim andwithheld the victim’s passport so that she could not escape. The JusticeDepartment takes all accusations very seriously and will continue toaggressively prosecute human trafficking cases such as this one whereverpossible.”

During the plea hearing, Ali admitted she withheld the victim’s Indonesianpassport in order to force the victim to work for Ali and Ali’s family. Aliforced the victim to work long hours over a four to five year period, performinghouse and yard work and taking care of the defendant and defendant’s familymembers with almost no compensation. In August of 2002, Ali agreed to employthe victim to work as a domestic servant for her in Malaysia for approximately$112 per month. A contract setting up the arrangement was executed. Then, Alibrought the victim to the United States on a temporary visitor’s visa to work asa domestic servant. From then until August of 2007, the victim worked tirelesslyfor Ali or Ali’s relatives as was only paid twice for her labor. The totalcompensation paid to the victim during the nearly five year period of“employment” was approximately $320.