BOSTON, March 30 2005 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network — A Saudi national residing in Winchester was arrested today on federal charges in connection with the forced labor of two domestic servants.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Assistant Attorney General for
Civil Rights R. Alexander Acosta; Robin M. Avers, Special Agent in Charge of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Kenneth W. Kaiser, Special Agent in
Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today that HANA F. AL
JADER, age 39, of 62 Cambridge Street, Winchester, Massachusetts has been
charged in a ten-count Indictment with two counts of Forced Labor, two counts
of Document Servitude, two counts of Falsification of Records, two counts of
Visa Fraud, and two counts of Harboring an Alien.
The Indictment alleges that AL JADER, a citizen of Saudi Arabia, resided
in residences in Arlington and Winchester, Massachusetts. It is alleged that
she obtained the labor and services of two Indonesian women as domestic
servants for her and her family from February, 2003 through November 2004, by
a scheme intended to cause the two women to believe that, if they did not
perform such labor, they would suffer serious harm.
AL JADER is also charged with confiscating and possessing the womens’
passports to prevent and restrict their liberty to move and travel in order to
maintain their labor and services.
The Indictment also charges AL JADER with creating a false work contract
and submitting it to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services for
visa extensions for the servants, falsely asserting that they were being paid
$1,500 a month and working only eight hours a day. It is alleged that in fact
the servants were paid only $300 per month and worked more than eight hours
each day. AL JADER is further charged with unlawfully harboring the servants
after their visa extensions expired.
AL JADER was arrested today on the charges and will appear this afternoon
before a U.S. Magistrate Judge. If convicted AL JADER faces a maximum
sentence of 20 years in prison on the two Forced Labor counts; 5 years on each
Document Servitude count; 20 years on the Falsification of Records counts; 15
years on the two Visa Fraud counts; and 10 years on the two Harboring counts.
She also faces a $250,000 fine on each count and restitution.
The case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S.
Attorney S. Theodore Merritt in Sullivan’s Public Corruption and Special
Prosecutions Unit and Lou DeBaca, Special Litigation Counsel in the Department
of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
The details contained in the Indictment are allegations. The defendant is
presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in
a court of law.
