The man of Bangladeshi origin was accused of exploiting workers and for favoring illegal immigration with the aggravating circumstance of committing a transnational crime. ''For the first time in this country a court has recognized and condemned slavery in the workplace, a practice that unfortunately exists today", - stressed Gianluca Petruzzo of the '3 Febbraio association.  The practice has been "censured in an exemplary way by a criminal court in Naples'', he said. 

Attorney Bruno Botti, who represented 20 exploited workers who were never paid more than 250 euros a month, said that ''everything started with the uprising in 2013 of a group of illegal workers in a small factory in the nearby town of Sant'Antimo." The employer controlled them after he had withdrawn their passports and threatened retaliatory acts against their families in Bangladesh. 

The workers benefited from a law that grants a residence permit for humanitarian reasons to those who report their exploiters in the workplace. This request, Botti said, was made ''also because if they returned home they would be exposed to the revenge of their exploiters who had sent them to Italy with the hope of a better future, making them pay up to 15,000 euros''. The association ''3 Febbraio'' will hold a press conference at Botti's office in Naples to discuss the impact and relevance of the ruling.