Four members of the billionaire Hinduja family, the richest in the UK, were convicted for exploiting domestic workers in Switzerland.
The family members received sentences between four and four and a half years in prison and were immediately jailed by the Swiss Court.
They were found guilty of seizing their workers’ passports, keeping them from going out of the family’s Lakeside Villa and making them work up to 18 hours a day.
Euronews reported:
“Prosecutors had said that their workers had described a ‘climate of fear’ instituted by Kamal Hinduja. They were forced to work with little or no holiday time, and worked even later hours for receptions. They slept in the basement, sometimes on a mattress on the floor.
But the Swiss court dismissed more serious charges of human trafficking against 79-year-old tycoon Prakash Hinduja; his wife, Kamal; son Ajay and daughter-in-law Namrata on the grounds that the workers understood what they were getting into, at least in part.
The workers were mostly illiterate Indians who were paid not in Swiss francs but in Indian rupees, deposited in banks back home that they couldn’t access.”
Lawyers representing the family said they will appeal the sentence. They were ‘relieved’ that the court dismissed the trafficking charges, but still they called the sentence ‘excessive’.
The family’s business manager Najib Ziazi received an 18-month suspended sentence.
The four were guilty of exploiting the workers and providing unauthorized employment, no health benefits and also paying wages that were less than one-tenth the pay for such jobs in Switzerland.
The Hinduja had already reached a settlement with the plaintiffs for an undisclosed sum.
The authorities in Switzerland seized diamonds, rubies, a platinum necklace and other jewelry items, as well as other assets from the family.
The Hinduja own an industrial conglomerate in sectors including information technology, media, power, real estate and health care.
Prakash Hinduja had already been convicted for similar charges in 2007.
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