Britain’s richest Hinduja family has said it was “shocked” by a Swiss court’s decision to jail some of its members and has filed an appeal in the high court challenging the verdict finding them guilty of exploiting vulnerable domestic workers from India at their Geneva villa.
In a statement issued on behalf of the family on Friday, Swiss lawyers stressed that their clients — Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, both in their 70s, and their son Ajay and his wife Namrata — had been acquitted of all charges of human trafficking.
He also dismissed media reports that any member of the family could be detained, as court reports from Geneva said all four had been sentenced to four to four-and-a-half years in prison.
“Our clients have been acquitted of all charges of human trafficking. We are shocked and disappointed by the rest of the verdict in this first instance court, and we have, of course, filed an appeal to the high court, which makes this part of the verdict no longer effective,” said the statement signed by lawyers Yael Hayat and Robert Assael and Roman Jordan.
“Under Swiss law, the presumption of innocence is paramount until a final judgment is imposed by the highest judicial authority. Contrary to some media reports, there is no effective means of detaining any family member,” he said.
The lawyers also said that “It should also be remembered that the plaintiffs in this case had withdrawn their respective complaints after declaring before the court that they never intended to indulge in such proceedings.”
He concluded, “The family has full faith in the judicial process and is confident that the truth will come out.”
The statement comes after a hearing in the Swiss city of Geneva, where prosecutors opened a case for alleged illegal activity including exploitation, human trafficking and violations of Switzerland’s labour laws.
The family members were accused of, among other things, confiscating the workers’ passports, preventing them from leaving the villa, and forcing them to work very long hours for meager wages in Switzerland.
Some workers reportedly spoke only Hindi and were paid in rupees in banks in India, to which they had no access.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that the family spent more on their dog than on their servants.
The family’s legal team denied the allegations and told the court that staff were treated with respect and provided with accommodation.
According to ‘The Sunday Times Rich List’ released last month, the UK-based Hinduja family has once again emerged as the richest family in the country with an estimated wealth of around GBP 37.196 billion.
They saw this number increase compared to last year following the opening of the brand new luxury OWO Raffles Hotel in the heart of London.
The UK-based family group of companies headed by chairman GP Hinduja operates in 48 countries and across multiple sectors – automotive, oil and specialty chemicals, banking and finance, IT, cyber security, healthcare, trading, infrastructure project development, media and entertainment, power and real estate.
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