Swiss criminal court to rule on allegations of human trafficking against Indians by billionaire Hinduja family

GENEVA — A criminal court ruled Friday whether members of a billionaire family engaged in illegal human trafficking and mistreated their servants, most of them illiterate Indians, who worked in their luxury lakeside villa in Geneva.

Four members of the Hinduja family are accused of seizing workers' passports, paying for them in rupees – not Swiss francs -, forbidding them from leaving the villa and forcing them to work excruciating hours for a sum derisory in Switzerland, among others.

Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal, as well as their son Ajay and his wife Namrata, face prison sentences of 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 years if found guilty in the trial which opened on June 10 . Advisor Najib Ziazi is also on trial.

Last week it emerged in the criminal court that the family – whose roots are in India – had reached an undisclosed agreement with the complainants. Geneva prosecutors opened the case for alleged illegal activities, including exploitation, human trafficking and violation of Swiss labor law.

The family moved to Switzerland decades ago and Prakash was previously convicted in 2007 on similar, albeit lesser, charges, although prosecutors say he persisted in employing people without proper documentation anyway.

Swiss authorities have already seized diamonds, rubies, a platinum necklace and other jewelry and belongings from the family, in anticipation that they could be used to pay legal fees and possible sanctions.

Prosecutors say that at times, employees – in jobs like cooks or housekeepers – were forced to work up to 18 hours a day with little or no vacation time and for pay equal to less than a tenth of the amount comparable required under the law. Swiss law.

The employees worked receptions even later and slept in the basement of the villa in the upscale Cologny neighborhood – sometimes on a mattress on the floor, prosecutors said. They described a “climate of fear” created by Kamal Hinduja.

Some employees spoke only Hindi and received their salaries in Indian rupees in banks in their country to which they had no access.

Another tax case filed by Swiss authorities is ongoing against Prakash Hinduja, who obtained Swiss citizenship in 2000.

Along with three brothers, he runs an industrial conglomerate in sectors including information technology, media, energy, real estate and health care. Forbes magazine currently estimates the Hinduja family's net worth at some $20 billion.