Couple accused of housemaid abuse and visa fraud found guilty

A Qatari military official and his Emirati wife, accused of keeping two housemaids in slave-like conditions while they lived in Texas, face deportation after pleading guilty in federal court on Friday.

Hassan Al-Homoud, 46, pleaded guilty to visa fraud and his wife, Zainab Al-Hosani, 39, pleaded guilty to knowing that a felony was taking place but failing to report it, the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said.

They will be sentenced in February and likely deported at that time, a federal judge said, adding he would have handed down a harsher sentence but could not since the servants refused to testify against the couple.

The two, who remain free on bond, could have faced up to 20 years in prison on charges of engaging in forced labor.

Al-Homoud was undergoing military training at Camp Bullis, an Army post near San Antonio.

Doha News reports that the two maids, one from Indonasia and the other from Bangladesh were brought to the US when the family moved from Qatar in 2014.

Doha News further states that the apartment where the two victims lived in was “virtually empty,” with minimal toiletries and no toilet paper, linens, utensils, clothes, television, reading material or communication devices. The victims also did not have keys to the apartment.

Each morning, the women were transported from their apartment to work as housekeepers.

During the day, they were allowed to eat the family’s leftovers but tried to limit their intake of food and water because their access to the bathrooms in the house was “extremely limited and often forbidden.”

On one occasion, Al Hosani beat the Indonesian woman with a stick for digging in the trash in search of food.

The women were apparently working under a domestic employee contract that stated they would make about $1,500 a month.

However, the women claimed that despite repeated requests, they were never paid during their time working for the family.

Prosecutors said the couple also took their passports to ensure they would not try to escape.

"I want the parties to know that this court was prepared to try this case but it made it difficult when the two victims did not want to go forward," US District Judge Orlando Garcia, visibly upset, said in court.

As part of the plea agreement, Garcia is expected to order the couple to pay each of the servants $60,000 and to leave the United States and never come back.