Indian-Swiss billionaire family members Namrata Hinduja and Ajay Hinduja arrive at the Geneva’s courthouse with their lawyers Yael Hayat and Robert Assael at the opening day of their trial for human trafficking in this file photo on Jan 15, 2024. A Swiss court on June 21, 2024, acquitted four members of Britain's richest family, the Hindujas, of human trafficking charges over treatment of domestic employees, and nonetheless sentenced them to heavy prison terms of four years.
The cases stem from the family's practice of bringing servants from their native India and included accusations of confiscating their passports once they were flown to Switzerland. Household staff were paid a salary between 220 and 400 francs a month, far below what they could expect to earn in Switzerland.But the Hinduja family's defence lawyers argued that the three plaintiffs received ample benefits, were not kept in isolation and were free to leave the villa.Indeed, the employees"were grateful to the Hindujas for offering them a better life", his fellow lawyer Robert Assael argued.