RUTHFULLY YOURS

The United Arab Emirates military officer accused of forcing his Filipino servant to work unpaid caring for his five children and cleaning his house in East Greenwich while he studied at the Naval War College was arrested late Monday at Kennedy Airport in New York aboard a direct flight back to his country.  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Arif Mohamed Saeed Mohamed Al-Ali around 11 p.m. Monday after authorities flagged his information when he checked in with his family to catch a flight to the United Arab Emirates, in violation of the terms of his release, according to Jim Martin, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha’s office.

… Prosecutors say Al-Ali took away the woman’s passport, told her not to talk to anyone outside of the family and banned her from attending religious services. He warned her not to escape. The woman did and is now in hiding, they say. The Filipino woman, Elizabeth Ballesteros, has sued Al-Ali and his wife, Samah Alharmoodi, in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island. The suit alleges the couple recruited her to America, imprisoned her and forced her into involuntary servitude. They did not uphold a contract saying they would pay her $1,600 a month for a 40-hour work week, the suit says. Instead, it alleges they sent $410 to her family in the Philippines for four months of work beginning last July.