Swiss court jails 4 Hinduja members for up to 4.5 years over servant abuse

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1. >A Swiss criminal court on Friday sentenced four members of the wealthy Hinduja family with between four and 4 1/2 years in prison for exploiting their vulnerable domestic workers. The court at the same time threw out the more severe charges of human trafficking.

   >The four — Indian-born tycoon Prakash Hinduja and his wife, son and daughter-in-law — were accused of trafficking of their servants, mostly illiterate Indians, who were employed at their luxurious lakeside villa in Geneva.

   >The four Hinduja family members were accused of seizing workers’ passports, paying them in rupees – not Swiss francs — barring them from leaving the villa and forcing them to work excruciatingly long hours for a pittance in Switzerland, among other things.

   >Prosecutors said that at times the staffers — in jobs like cooks or house help — were forced to work up to 18 hours a day with little or no vacation time off and for pay that was equal to less than one-tenth of the comparable amount required under Swiss law.

2. Just a great example of modern slavery. At the end of the day you don’t establish that amount of wealth without being shitty human beings.

3. >The four were not in court in Geneva though a fifth defendant — Najib Ziazi, the family’s business manager — was in attendance. He received an 18 months suspended sentence.

   Are they actually getting jailed or are they hiding somewhere abroad?