A wealthy couple living in a Dallas suburb were indicted Wednesday on federal charges of forced labor, harboring an alien for financial gain, conspiracy to commit forced labor, and conspiracy to harbor an alien for financial gain, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The couple, Mohamed Touré and Denise Florence Cros-Touré, both 57 and natives of Guinea, are accused of having enslaved and physically and verbally abused a female that they had flown — alone — to the U.S. when she was five.
According to the girl, now 21, from the time she arrived at the she arrived at the Touré home, she was forced to do household chores and cook against her will. For her trouble, she was called “whore” and routinely beaten with a belt, whipped with an electrical cord, and forced to sleep on the floor. According to a federal complaint, on one occasion Cros-Touré tore an earring from the child’s left ear, leaving a scar.
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Known only as D.D., the woman might still be in captivity if she hadn’t managed to survive the fall from a second story window she had leaped out of one night in desperation before fleeing into the darkness.
Mohamed Touré is the son of Guinea’s first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré, who was himself the great grandson of Samori Touré, a powerful Muslim cleric who established an independent Islamic rule in part of West Africa.
Touré and Cros-Touré both face up to 20 years in prison, along with a $250,000 fine and restitution, if convicted of the forced-labor charges. The couple faces an additional 10 years and $250,000 fine if they are convicted of alien harboring.
