Colorado Attorney General John Suthers reassures Saudis

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By Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News

November 18, 2006

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers flew to Saudi Arabia this week to reassure government officials there that Homaidan Al-Turki was treated fairly when he was convicted of sexually abusing an Indonesian nanny held a virtual captive in his Aurora home.

Suthers sat knee-to-knee for an hour with King Abdullah and also met with Crown Prince Sultan, Saudi journalists and relatives of Al-Turki during his weeklong trip to the capital city of Riyadh, Deputy Attorney General Jason Dunn said Friday.

"There was a lot of public attention in Saudi Arabia on this case," Dunn said, adding that "misperceptions" there about the U.S. judicial system and Colorado in particular convinced U.S. officials that the highly unusual trip was warranted.

In June, Al-Turki was convicted in Arapahoe County of 12 counts of unlawful sexual contact with force, one count of theft of services over $15,000, false imprisonment and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Al-Turki has been portrayed in the Saudi press as a victim of the U.S. judicial system's bias against Muslims. Many Saudis say Al-Turki would not have been convicted in his own country.

The Saudi government gave Al-Turki $400,000 to post bail on the charges.

During the trial, the 24-year- old victim testified that she was brought to Colorado from Saudi Arabia by the Al-Turki family in 2000 and worked and lived with them in Aurora for four years. She worked seven days a week and was paid $150 a month, but Al-Turki and his wife kept most of that money.

She also testified that Al-Turki took her passport and that he repeatedly sexually abused her.

At his sentencing, Al-Turki said he would not apologize for "things I did not do and for crimes I did not commit."

"The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors," he told the judge. "Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution."

Prosecutors said it was a clear case of human trafficking.

In deals with prosecutors, Al- Turki's wife, Sarah Khonaizan, pleaded guilty to reduced charges in both state and federal court earlier this summer and was to be deported.

The nanny, whose name the Rocky Mountain News is withholding because she is a sexual assault victim, now lives in Aurora.

Suthers' trip this week was sponsored by the U.S. State Department in consultation with the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia and Gov. Bill Owens.

While there, Suthers explained how the U.S. judicial system works and said that "in Colorado, crimes of this sort are dealt with severely," Dunn said. "He wasn't apologizing for it, but he wanted them to understand why the result of the case was what it was."

The federal government picked up the tab for Suthers to spend the week in Saudi Arabia with Owens' chief counsel, Jon Anderson, Dunn said.

A U.S. State Department spokeswoman on Friday was unable to provide the trip's cost or who paid for it.

Suthers is expected to arrive back in Denver late tonight.

Muslim practices vs. American justice

The case of a 24-year-old nanny sexually abused and virtually enslaved by a Saudi Arabian family living in Aurora has raised debate about the practices of the Muslim world vis-a-vis the American justice system.

• The authorities

State Attorney General John Suthers, traveled to Saudi Arabia to assure King Abdullah that treatment was fair.

• The convicted

Homaidan Al-Turki was sentenced to 20 years to life, and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, is to be deported.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/loca...5154046,00.html

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Slavery was ended in Saudi Arabic only in 1964. Unfortunately, there is still a slave/master mentality among the privileged there, and there are sheikhs in the KSA who are calling for bringing legal slavery back. Al-Turki's case was not the first of its kind, nor will it be the last.

I currently live in Colorado, close to Denver and sometimes attend the masjid that he attended. He taught some of my friends. They are uncertain what to believe because there is a confusion in some minds about when justice has been done and when law is used to persecute.

Personally, I don't know where the truth lies, and I accept that the outcome was not up to me. Still, as long as the feds see Saudi Arabia as an ally and have to deal with them as a major supplier of fuel, diplomacy will require that extradinary measures be taken to placate and pacify their powers that be.

However, it is incorrect to portray Saudi practices as broad brushed Muslim practices, as the article has done. They are not one and the same. Saudi Arabia, altho a wealthy nation, is barely out of its tribal period. Having never been colonized, it has maintained much of its pre-Islamic character thru tradition and culture. Believe me, there is much criticism of Saudi Salafi/Wahabi practices and interpretation vis a vie Islam in the rest of the Muslim world. We are not a monolith.

Edited November 21, 2006 by szsz

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However, it is incorrect to portray Saudi practices as broad brushed Muslim practices, as the article has done. They are not one and the same. Saudi Arabia, altho a wealthy nation, is barely out of its tribal period. Having never been colonized, it has maintained much of its pre-Islamic character thru tradition and culture. Believe me, there is much criticism of Saudi Salafi/Wahabi practices and interpretation vis a vie Islam in the rest of the Muslim world. We are not a monolith.

Good points.

[peejay 327]

The USA wouldn't have to kiss the a$$ of these jerks if we weren't such oil junkies. It is disgusting.

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The USA wouldn't have to kiss the a$$ of these jerks if we weren't such oil junkies. It is disgusting.

I have no doubt they had a fair trial in Colorado. Would the same thing happen to an American in Saudi Arabia?