The family has denied all charges. Lawyers representing the defendants said they have appealed.
ADVERTISEMENTAn Indian-born billionaire and three family members were sentenced in the first instance to prison on Friday for exploiting domestic workers at their lakeside villa in Switzerland by seizing their passports, barring them from going out and making them work up to 18 hours a day.
According to the charges, 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.
A 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 four received between four and four and a half years in prison.
The family has denied all charges against them. Solicitors representing the defendants said they have appealed, emphasising that the sentence was not in effect pending the outcome of the appeal.
“Our clients the Hinduja family have been acquitted of all human trafficking charges. The family denies all other charges against them," Carter-Ruck solicitors said in a statement to Euronews.
"As the family are appealing the case, the previous judgment is not final or binding and the higher court will rehear the case in its entirety. Under the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure, the presumption of innocence applies until a final judgment by the highest adjudicating authority, which has not yet taken place," the statement said.
"Contrary to some media reports, no members of the family are imprisoned as a result of the verdict. The complainants in this case have withdrawn their civil complaints against the family. The family has full faith in the judicial process and remains confident that the truth will prevail.”
A fifth defendant — Najib Ziazi, the family’s business manager — received an 18-month suspended sentence.
Along with three brothers, Prakash Hinduja leads an industrial conglomerate in sectors including information technology, media, power, real estate and health care. Forbes magazine has put the Hinduja family’s net worth at some $20 billion (€17.9bn).
The family set up residence in Switzerland in the 1980s, and Hinduja was convicted in 2007 on similar charges. A separate tax case brought by Swiss authorities is pending against Hinduja, who obtained Swiss citizenship in 2000.
Correction: The article was amended on 18 September 2024 to include the statement from Hinduja family's solicitors.