Woman jailed in US for enslaving Indonesian maids
Updated
A wealthy American woman has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for enslaving and torturing her two Indonesian housekeepers.
Varsha Sabhnani was sentenced to 132 months in jail while her husband Mahender Sabhnani, who ran a perfume business in Long Island near New York, was sentenced to three years jail.
The couple were found guilty in December of beating their maids with sticks, and throwing scalding water at them.
They also refused to pay the women and instead would send 100 dollars a month to their families in Indonesia.
The maids worked 20-hour days.
The two women, neither of whom spoke English, arrived in the United States in 2002 under valid visas. But the Sabhnanis confiscated their passports and their visas expired.
