Couple Get 7 Years in Prison Each for Enslaving Guinean Girl

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A federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, sentenced Mohamed Touré and Denise Cros-Touré each to two seven-year terms and one five-year term, all sentences to be served concurrently. The 58-year-old Southlake, Texas, couple must also serve three years of supervised released upon completion of their prison terms and pay their victim $288,000 in restitution. They also will be deported to Guinea.

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Trial evidence showed the Tourés brought the girl, then aged at least 5 years but perhaps as old as 13, from her rural Guinean village in 2000. They forced her to work without pay in their home as a housekeeper, cook and nanny until she fled and alerted authorities.

The Tourés are the son and daughter-in-law of the late Guinean President Ahmed Sekou Touré, who helped lead Guinea to independence from French rule in 1958. Sekou Toure was the country’s first president, a role he held until his death in 1984.

The Tourés were convicted in January, and prosecutors had sought the full 20-year prison sentences allowed by law. However, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Conner tempered the sentence request.

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However, Palmer said the judge’s decision to temper the sentence suggests the trial judge did not believe the pair were as evil as portrayed by prosecutors.

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