Alleged 'slave couple' begins house arrest

BY ROBERT E. KESSLER | robert.kessler@newsday.com

7:32 PM EDT, August 21, 2007

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Saying that "I don't think there is anything further to be satisfied," a federal judge Tuesday released on bail a wealthy Muttontown couple charged with enslaving two Indonesian women 14 weeks after they had been initially arrested in the case.

The couple, Varsha Sabhnani and her husband, Mahender, declined to comment as they left the federal courthouse in Central Islip at 2:05 p.m. nor when they arrived at their home, accompanied by armed private security guards, for whom they are having to pay as part of a bail agreement to turn their home into the equivalent of a prison.

The couple have been in prison since May 14, when they were arrested on charges of enslaving the two women, who they had hired as housekeepers, and also harboring them as illegal immigrants, since their visas had long since expired.

Federal prosecutors have said that one of the women, who has been identified only as Jane Doe No. 1 or Samirah, was repeatedly tortured. The Sabhnanis' lawyers have denied the charge.

Sources familiar with the bail arrangements say the Sabhnanis, who operate an international perfume manufacturing and distribution business from their home at 205 Coachman Place E., will have to pay as much as $15,000 a day under the terms of their release to home confinement.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Platt, who had originally declined to release the couple on any conditions, was overruled by a federal appeals court, which said that federal prosecutors should be able to craft a set of conditions that would assure that it was unlikely that the Sabhnanis could flee the country before the trial, despite their wealth.

Platt ordered the release after prosecutors said that they believe that the conditions had been met, including an accounting of the Sabhnanis' assets, which prosecutor Mark Lesko said in court amounted to about $12 million.

Platt set bail for Varsha Sabhnani at $2.5 million bail; for Mahender Sabhnani, $2 million.

Among the other conditions: The home will be guarded around the clock by two armed guards who have the power to detain the Sabhnanis or their children, by using reasonable force, if they believe any of them are planning to flee.

In addition, a monitor, also paid for by the Sabhnanis but also reporting to federal prosecutors, will be stationed in the basement of the home to check on incoming and outgoing communication via the single telephone, fax machine and computer that will be permitted in the home.

The monitor will also check on the cell phones that two of the Sabhnani children, who have severe diabetes, will be allowed to carry. But those phones can only be used in emergencies.

"We're happy that they're finally getting out, but they should have been bailed out ," said Jeffrey Hoffmann, Varsha Sabhnani's attorney. "They have not been convicted of any crime. The government had stood the system on its head. The government has become the enslaver of those they accuse of enslaving."

Bharat Jotnani, a spokesman for the Sabhnani family who accompanied the Sabhnanis' children to court, said, "We are thankful on behalf of the family that finally justice is being served in a way and thankful to Judge Platt."

But noting that a trial on the charges remain, Jotnani said he did not believe that the Sabhnanis whom he knew were capable of committing the crimes they were accused of.

Mahender Sabhnani's attorney, Matthew Brissenden, declined to comment.

An official of the Indonesian consulate in New York, Bambang Antarikso, who was present in the courtroom, also declined to comment, as did federal prosecutors Lesko and Demetri Jones.

The two Indonesian women have been cared for by Catholic Charities. Officials there and federal prosecutors have declined to allow the women to be interviewed, citing the upcoming trial.

Newsday staff writer Peter Holley contributed to this story.