Brazil 'confident' VW Will Pay Damages In Slave-labor Case

Rio de Janeiro, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jun, 2022 ) :Volkswagen appeared Tuesday before a hearing with Brazilian prosecutors to answer to allegations of human-rights violations at a farm the German auto giant ran during Brazil's military dictatorship, including slave labor, rapes and torture.

Prosecutors presented company representatives with a 90-page dossier they say documents years of atrocities committed by VW managers and hired guns at a cattle ranch the company owned in the Amazon rainforest basin in the 1970s and 80s -- the latest attempt to bring justice for abuses committed under Brazil's 1964-1985 military regime.

The lead prosecutor in the case, Rafael Garcia, said the closed-door hearing had concluded with an agreement that Volkswagen would submit a written response by September, with a new audience to be held then.

"The Federal prosecutors' office for labor affairs is confident that at the end of the proceedings, we will have adequate reparations for the grave human-rights violations that ocurred," he told journalists.

Volkswagen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors say they have evidence of years of atrocities committed at the property in the northern state of Para, known as Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino.

"There were grave and systematic violations of human rights, and Volkswagen is directly responsible," Garcia told AFP before the hearing.

He said the audience was an initial contact to attempt to negotiate a settlement without opening criminal proceedings.

Volkswagen has said it is taking the accusations "very seriously."In 2020, Volkswagen agreed to pay 36 million reais ($6.4 million at the time) in compensation for collaborating with Brazil's secret police during the dictatorship to identify suspected leftist opponents and union leaders at its local operation, who were then detained and tortured.