A real life display of tolerance and sensitivity!
Twenty years off the sentence for good behavior? via Saudi linguist gets sentence partially reduced | 9news.com.
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) – A Saudi linguist convicted of sexually assaulting a housekeeper and keeping her a virtual slave for four years won a partial reduction of his prison sentence from a Colorado judge Friday.
Homaidan al-Turki was sentenced to between eight years and life in prison. District Judge J. Mark Hannen in Centennial cited al-Turki’s good behavior in prison in reducing the original sentence of 28 years to life.
Al-Turki insists he is innocent and a victim of anti-Muslim sentiment. His case has angered Saudi authorities — several of whom attended Friday’s hearing — and prompted the U.S. State Department to send Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan and al-Turki’s family after al-Turki’s 2006 conviction.
More than 100 supporters of al-Turki crowded the courthouse Friday.
Prosecutors opposed any sentence reduction. Appellate courts have upheld al-Turki’s conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case last year.
Al-Turki brought his wife, five children and an Indonesian housekeeper to Colorado in 1995, and he studied at the University of Colorado. He was a well-known member of Denver’s Muslim community, contributing financially to the Colorado Muslim Society and an Islamic elementary school in Aurora, said Sheikh Abu-Omar Almubarac, a society co-founder.
According to court documents, al-Turki first came under investigation when authorities examined whether his operation of a business violated terms of his student visa. Al-Turki owned Al-Basheer Publications & Translations, which distributed Islamic works in English.
Al-Turki’s company holds the copyright to “The Lives of the Prophets,” a CD set of sermons recorded by the U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
A state jury convicted him of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft and extortion — all felonies — as well as misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment. Similar federal charges were dropped.
Al-Turki has filed a federal lawsuit claiming guards at the Limon Correctional Facility denied him medical attention as he passed a kidney stone. That suit is pending.
From ABC Denver: Saudi “Linguist” Up For Parole Next Month
LIMON, Colo. — A Saudi linguist who once faced a minimum sentence of 28 years to life in prison for sexual assault and keeping a housekeeper a virtual slave for four years is up for parole next month. Department of Corrections records show a parole hearing is scheduled June 20 for Homaidan Al-Turki. A judge in February knocked 20 years off Al-Turki’s sentence following a Colorado Supreme Court decision in an unrelated case that rendered his sentence illegal. A jury convicted him in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft and extortion — all felonies — as well as misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment. Al-Turki maintained his innocence during the trial, saying he is a victim of anti-Muslim sentiment.
Saudi authorities asked for leniency.
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