Their passports were taken away, they were prevented from leaving the house and they were paid less than the minimum wage: found guilty of exploitation, four members of the millionaire Hinduja family face four years in prison.
Four members of the UK’s richest family have been sentenced to prison for exploiting workers at their Geneva home. With a fortune valued at 43 billion euros, Kamal and Prakash Hinduja, his son Ajay and his daughter-in-law Namrata, face each other sentences of between four and four and a half years in prisona Swiss court ruled.
The accusation was made by three Indian workers who were brought from India to work in the Hinduja family mansion, according to several British media reports. According to the indictment, the Hinduja They took my passports to the workers and They limited their outings of the property. During 18 hours of daily work, they achieved receive only eight dollars (less than 7.5 euros): a payment well below the minimum hourly wage in the canton of Geneva, which is 32 Swiss francs (about 25 euros).
Even though Hinduja had signed an agreement with the workers – whose values were not revealed – Swiss prosecutors decided to press ahead with charges, including human trafficking, the BBC reported at the time. When the sentence was read last Saturday, the four members of the Hinduja family were acquitted of human traffickingbut considered guilty of illegal labor exploitation.
During the trial, prosecutor Yves Bertrossa compared the $10,000 the family spends each year on their pet dog with the low amounts they were willing to pay their workers. Bertrossa denounced the way in which the Hindujas took advantage of the “asymmetric situation” between family and workers and accused them of “profiting from the misery of the world,” in statements cited by The Guardian.
On the other hand, defense attorneys said the amount paid to employees had to be seen in the context in which they worked: they received food and lodging. Robert Assael also argued in court that the task of watching a movie with the family’s children was not necessarily a job.
The defense called some former family employees to testify on their behalf. As he left the court, Assael said these employees “were grateful to Hinduja for offering them a better life,” the BBC reported.
On Saturday, after reading the sentence, Assael said he was “shocked” by it. “We will fight until the end,” declared the lawyer, who has already confirmed that he will appeal the decision. Ajay Hinduja’s lawyer also criticized the decision, saying the court is using the family as an example and accusing the judge of wanting to do “social justice” instead of justice.
None of the four defendants were present at the reading of the sentence. Ajay and Namrata, sentenced to four years in prison, were present during the trial but missed the final session to provide support to Kamal. The matriarch, 75, is admitted to a hospital in Monaco, where she has been accompanied by Prakash, 78. The older couple was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
The prosecutors He called for the immediate arrest of the four members of the Hinduja family, but the request was rejected by the judgewhich considered Kamal’s health condition and the necessary support from the remaining members.
The Hinduja family, of Indo-British origin, accumulated a fortune of 37 billion pounds (43 billion euros) with businesses in the oil, gas and banking sectors, and also owns the Raffles hotel in London. The multinational works in more than 38 countries and employs around 200,000 workers.
Source: Observadora
