WASHINGTON – A couple plead guilty to bringing a woman from Morocco into the United States and keeping her in their home as a domestic servant for three years, federal officials announced today.
Abdelkader and Hnia Amal, who are husband and wife, hid the woman identified in court records as F.H. in their home in Alexandria, Virginia from December 2007 to December 2010, officials said.
Officials said F.H. served as a domestic servant within the home of the defendants. Hnia Amal also had F.H. work for her commercial cleaning company, cleaning various residential and commercial properties.
According to the statement of facts entered with Abdelkader Amal’s plea agreement, Amal previously held an A-1 diplomatic visa as a military official in the Moroccan embassy in Washington, D.C.
The Amals unlawfully brought F.H. into the United States on a visa they procured based on false representations that F.H. would be employed as a domestic servant for a different employer, authorities said.
After the defendants unlawfully smuggled F.H. into the United States in December 2007, they did not pay her a salary.
Instead, the defendants made two down payments towards an apartment in Morocco on F.H.’s behalf.
The two payments, made in October 2010 and January 2011, were roughly equivalent to $8,500, and represented only about a quarter of the total apartment cost, according to authorities.
Moreover, officials allege that while Hnia Amal’s cleaning company received money for the work that F.H. performed, F.H. did not receive any pay for her work on behalf of Hnia Amal’s cleaning company.
After Amal retired as a military official in the Moroccan embassy in 2003 as the defense supply attaché, he was no longer eligible to sponsor individuals for domestic employment under an A-3 visa, officials said.
The defendants face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when they are sentenced in July, prosecutors said.