The Boulogne-Billancourt industrial tribunal condemned a former Burundian Minister of Justice and his wife to pay nearly 2 million euros to a compatriot whom they had exploited for ten years in their home.
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In March 2021, the Versailles Court of Appeal (Yvelines) imposed a two-year suspended prison sentence on Gabriel Mpozagara and his wife for “human trafficking», «hidden work” and “assistance with illegal entry and stayof a foreign national. This judgment confirmed the sentence pronounced at first instance against the couple. The industrial tribunal also condemned the spouses to pay nearly 2 million euros to the victim. “The employment relationship (has been reclassified) as a full-time permanent contract“, Can we read in the decision rendered on February 1 that AFP consulted.
“If I didn’t, they wouldn’t feed me.
Method S, Burundian farmer victim of Gabriel Mpozagara
They can appeal this judgment. In detail, Gabriel Mpozagara and his wife must pay 1.756 million euros in respect of unpaid wages and paid leave, to which are added sums in compensation for various damages, including the deprivation of housing and food. worthy. “A remarkable judgment“, reacted to AFP the lawyers of the victim Martin Pradel and Alexandre Reynaud, judging”that it is only by effectively obtaining a proportionate reparation (…) that we will obtain that the fight against modern slavery is effective“.
In February 2021, Méthode S., a Burundian farmer, explained to the Versailles Court of Appeal how he had been “strength” at “work in fearfor ten years in the house of the couple, who had confiscated his passport. Cleaning, ironing, gardening…”If I didn’t, they wouldn’t feed me“, he had maintained. In 2018, warned by a shopkeeper, the police had discovered in the villa of the ex-minister and former diplomat of Unesco Gabriel Mpozagara in Ville-d’Avray (Hauts-de-Seine) a man “emaciated and obviously frightenedin the basement, in an unsanitary room.
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In the criminal aspect of this case, the Versailles Court of Appeal had condemned the dignitaries to pay damages to Méthode S. in the amount of 50,000 euros for violation of dignity and 20,000 euros for emotional damage, the father family who have not been able to see their wife or children for years. The couple had already been sentenced in 2007 in France but released on appeal in a similar case which concerned two of their nieces from Burundi.