ATLANTA (AP) — A Nigerian woman convicted of enslaving two young women from her country to work as servants and nannies at her suburban Atlanta home has been sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison.
Bidemi Bello apologized to the judge and to the victims before her sentencing Thursday.
A federal jury convicted Bello in June of human trafficking, making false statements and other charges.
Prosecutors say she lured the women to Georgia on separate occasions with false promises of education and then forced them to do menial labor. They say she routinely beat them, forced them to eat spoiled food and cut her lawn by hand.
The two women, both 27, managed to eventually escape. They still live in the U.S. and are working to rebuild their lives.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.