Photographic evidence gathered during the pre-trial investigation of the lodgings provided to berry pickers by Polarica in Kauhava, South Ostrobothnia, in 2022. A former chief executive of the berry processing company stands accused of 77 counts of aggravated human trafficking for subjecting Thai berry pickers to forced labour-like conditions in various parts of Finland. (Handout / Police of Finland)
- Next Article HUS Group to cut 990 person years, eyeing savings of €50m
PROSECUTORS are calling for a five-year prison sentence for Jukka Kristo, a former chief executive of Polarica, reports YLE.
In a trial that began with a preliminary hearing at the District Court of Lapland on Monday, Kristo stands accused of 77 counts of aggravated human trafficking for subjecting Thai berry pickers to forced labour-like conditions.
The prosecution is calling for a five-year prison sentence also to Kalyakorn Phongphit, the Thai business partner of Kristo. The defendants should also relinquish to the state whatever is left of the 985,000 euros they made criminal profits after compensating the victims. Polarica should also be ordered to pay a corporate fine of 300,000 euros, the prosecutors said.
Both defendants have denied the charges.
The number of counts is likely to increase given that police have yet to wrap up their pre-trial investigation into all possible victims. Human trafficking carries a minimum penalty of four months and a maximum penalty of six years in prison, and aggravated human trafficking a minimum penalty of two years and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison under the criminal code of Finland.
According to YLE, at least 30 hearings will be organised next spring, when the trial is set to begin in earnest, to enable the victims to appear remotely before the court from the District Court of Helsinki.
Kristo and Phongphit are accused of subjecting berry pickers to conditions that violated their human dignity in various parts of Finland in 2022. On Monday, the prosecutors argued that the pickers worked in forced labour-like conditions with insufficient opportunities to rest, were accommodated in unfit facilities that did not necessarily have showers and were provided with insufficient amounts or partly contaminated food.
Such conditions, they added, came as a surprise to the berry pickers as they had been misled about the work and accommodation conditions.
The defendants both shifted the blame on each other and argued that the conditions aligned with the berry act and relevant regulations.
Kai Kotiranta, the defence counsel of Kristo, stressed that the berry pickers had not signed their contracts with Polarica but with the company of Phongphit. The pickers, he added, were also paid for their harvest via Phongphit.
Kotiranta said the information unearthed about the business associate during the pre-trial investigation came “to some degree” as a surprise to Kristo and Polarica.
“For example, the cost structure – which also this charge has been and continues to be about – as it has been described in the charge, Kristo and Polarica had no knowledge of it. That some extra costs were charged from the pickers,” he noted.
Jaakko Kuprainen, the defence counsel of Phongphit, denied that his client had charged additional fees from the pickers. While Phongphit was responsible for weighing the berries in the forest, the weighing equipment and tare weights had been provided by Polarica. He also denied, though, that incorrect tare weights had been used to scam the workers.
The trial is the second in a handful of human trafficking cases linked to berry picking in Finland. In May, the District Court of Lapland heard preliminary statements in a case against Vernu Vasunta, the chief executive of Kiantama.
Vasunta has denied the accusations.
Finland granted work permits for roughly a thousand Thai berry pickers for this summer and autumn. None of them, though, are expected to make the trip because Thai authorities have chosen to reject their exit visa applications over human trafficking concerns, Helsingin Sanomat wrote in July.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
- Next Article HUS Group to cut 990 person years, eyeing savings of €50m
Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
