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CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) ― One was found muttering and injured wandering outside a doughnut shop. The other was cowering in fear inside a tiny closet under a stairway.

The U.S. government estimates approximately 800,000 people are trafficked internationally each year. But it is the story that two Indonesian women have to tell about their journey to an exclusive Long Island home - and the alleged abuse they endured there - that has commanded attention beyond the jam-packed courtroom where a federal trial began last week.

Satellite television trucks are ubiquitous in the courthouse parking lot, and national cable news anchors are chatting up the details. Inside the courtroom, there have been allegations of slavery, witchcraft and torture.

The defendants are a millionaire couple who run a worldwide perfume business out of their home. They are accused of inflicting humiliating punishment and abuse on the women, known only as Samirah and Enung, in what a prosecutor has called a case of modern-day slavery.

"Enung and Samirah were the defendants' house servants but they weren't treated like servants,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Demetri Jones told jurors in her opening statement. In exchange for $100 a month sent to relatives in Indonesia, the women were required to keep a spotless house, forced to sleep on mats in a kitchen, pilfer food because they weren't given enough to eat, and subjected to a series of physical and mental abuses.

"Their passports and visas were kept by the defendants in the locked closet in the defendants' bedroom ... hidden and locked away until they were expired and useless,'' Jones said. "All of this was done to keep Samirah and Enung, two illegal aliens, two strangers in America, working in the defendants' house.''

Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, and his wife, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45, were arrested after Samirah said she fled their Muttontown home to end the abuse. Their attorneys contend the housekeepers engaged in witchcraft and may have abused themselves as part of an Indonesian self-mutilation ritual.

They also argue that the women were jealous of the Sabhnanis' lifestyle and economic position and noted the there was ample opportunity to flee when they were left alone while the Sabhnanis went on any number of extended vacations.

"Unexpectedly, a government tsunami washed over them and turned their lives upside down,'' defense attorney Jeffrey Hoffman told jurors. "This government made a rush to judgment based on a story they heard from a woman who claimed to have been abused in their house.''

The Sabhnanis, who have four children, spent nearly three months in jail before a judge signed off on a $4.5 million bail package that requires the couple to remain under house arrest. They also are personally paying an estimated $10,000 a day to be under 24-hour security surveillance after prosecutors argued they were a potential flight risk.

If convicted, they could face 40 years in prison.

Prosecutors say the women were slashed with a knife and made to climb stairs repeatedly as punishment for various misdeeds. The women also were ordered to take freezing showers and Samirah said she was forced to consume numerous hot chili peppers and later had to eat her own vomit after becoming sick from them.

The case broke last May on Mother's Day when concerned employees at a Dunkin' Donuts in Syosset called police after Samirah, 51, wandered into their store, muttering and appearing injured. Before the day was over, she was being treated in a hospital and authorities had a warrant to search the Sabhnani home, where they found Enung hiding in a basement closet.

It was a case the tabloids couldn't ignore: The New York Post dubbed Varsha Sabhnani "Cruella'' along with a particularly unflattering photo of her on its front page. Many others have shown interest in the case, as well.

Representatives of the Indonesian consulate in New York have attended some of the court proceedings. In addition, a reporter form India Abroad, a U.S.-based publication on Indian issues, has occasionally joined the New York press throng covering the case.

Well-known courtroom artists Andrea and Shirley Shepherd, who usually cover high-profile Manhattan trials, have also made the trip to eastern Long Island to chronicle events in the courtroom for television reporters banned from bringing their cameras inside the federal facility.

Testifying through an interpreter, Samirah introduced the subject of black magic into the trial when she claimed that Varsha Sabhnani, whom she referred to as "the Mrs.'' had concocted a spell that led to the death of one of Samirah's sons in Indonesia.

"The Mrs. put a spell on him,'' she said moments after taking the witness stand. The subject of spells was not revisited during the rest of Samirah's brief testimony, which barely touched on her experiences with the Sabhnanis. She is expected back on the witness stand Monday.

Enung is expected to testify later in the trial, which is expected to last six to eight weeks.

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