Bangladesh: Nobel laureate jailed for ‘labour law violations’

Muhammad Yunus, the chairman of Grameen Telecom and a Bangladeshi Nobel winner, and three other people were convicted to six months in prison on Monday for breaking labour laws by a Dhaka court. Dhaka residents are questioning the verdict’s timeliness, given that it was rendered six days prior to the countrywide elections. With the help of his microfinance bank, Grameen Bank, Yunus, 83, brought millions of Bangladeshis out of poverty and gained international recognition. Although he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, he and the Sheikh Hasina administration have never agreed. He is allegedly “sucking blood from the poor,” according to Hasina. More than 170 world leaders, including the former US president Barack Obama, had pleaded with Hasina to put a halt to all legal measures against Yunus because they were concerned about the multiple cases against him. In response, Hasina stated that she would invite lawyers and specialists from other countries to visit Bangladesh in order to evaluate the court case and look over the papers related to Yunus’s accusations. The decision was made public on Monday by judge Sheikh Marina Sultana of Dhaka Labour Court 3. Later, bail was given to Yunus and the others. Additionally, the court punished them Bangladeshi Taka 5,000 for one area and Taka 25,000 for another, with further penalties of 10 and 15 days in prison. The judge allowed them a month to contest the ruling in a high court appeal. At 1:35 p.m., Yunus and the other three accused in the case—Managing Director M. Shahjahan, Trustee Nurjahan Begum, and CEO of Grameen Telecom Md. Ashraful Hassan—appeared in court. The court scheduled the ruling for Monday following the conclusion of the case’s arguments on December 24. Yunus was accused of bribery and violating labour laws on more than a hundred more counts. The Nobel laureate informed reporters following one of the hearings last month that none of the more than 50 social enterprise companies he had founded in Bangladesh had brought him any financial gain. The judge determined that the accusations against the accused were true in the 84-page ruling. Nonetheless, the four were released on bail for a month with the promise to appeal, so they won’t have to to prison immediately. The defense’s attorney, Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, stated that his clients had not gotten justice and that they would appeal the ruling to a higher court. The Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment filed a lawsuit on September 9, 2021, alleging that Yunus and three other individuals had broken labour rules. During an examination at Grameen Telecom, the agency found multiple labour law infractions, according to case files. Among the infractions include the failure to create a welfare and workers’ participation fund, to permanently hire 101 workers and employees, and to give workers 5% of the company’s dividend. (With agency inputs)