Four members of a family billionaires were sentenced to prison for exploit domestic workers at their residence (located next to a lake in Switzerland), take away their passports, prohibit them from leaving and forcing them to work up to 18 hours a day.
A Swiss court dismissed more serious human trafficking charges against the tycoon Prakash Hinduja, 79 years old; his wife, Kamal; his son Ajay and his daughter-in-law Namrata, arguing that the workers understood what they were getting into, at least in part. The four were sentenced to between four and four and a half years in prison.
Most of the workers were illiterate indianthose who did not pay them in Swiss francs, but in Indian rupees, deposited in banks in their country to which they they couldn’t access.
Lawyers representing the defendants said they would appeal.
The Hinduja mansion in Switzerland (Pinterest).
Robert Assael, Kamal Hinduja’s lawyer, was “relieved” that the court dismissed the charges of human traffickingbut described the sentence as excessive.
“The health of our clients is very precarious, they are elderly people,” he said to explain why the family was not present in court. He claimed Hinduja’s 75-year-old wife was in intensive care and her family was with her.
A fifth defendant, Najib Ziazi, who manages the family’s businesses, was sentenced to 18 months suspended prison.
Jewelry has been seized from billionaires
Last week it emerged in court that the family had reached an undisclosed settlement with the plaintiffs. Swiss authorities They have seized diamonds, rubies, a platinum necklace and other jewelry and property in anticipation that they could be used to pay the cost of the judicial process and possible sanctions.
Along with three brothers, Prakash Hinduja runs an industrial conglomerate in sectors such as information technology, media, energy, real estate and medical services. Magazine Forbes has put the Hinduja family’s net worth at around 20 billion dollars.
The Hinduja marriage. This is not the first time they have been accused of labor exploitation (Antena 3).
The family took up residence in Switzerland in the 1980s. In 2007, Hinduja was convicted on similar charges. Swiss authorities have a pending tax case against Hinduja, who obtained Swiss nationality in 2000.
In the current case, the court found the four defendants guilty of exploiting the workers and providing them with unauthorized employment, giving them little or no health benefits and paying them wages less than one-tenth of those paid for this type of work in Swiss.
According to prosecutors, the workers described a “climate of fear” established by Kamal Hinduja. They were forced to work with little or no vacation time, and even to work late when there were receptions. They slept in the basement, sometimes on a mattress on the floor.
