Nobel Relief Laureate Muhammad Yunus Convicted Of Violating Bangladesh’s Labour Regulations

Dhaka:

Nobel leisure laureate Muhammad Yunus used to be convicted on Monday of violating Bangladesh’s labour rules in a case decried by means of his supporters as politically determined.

Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting thousands and thousands out of poverty together with his pioneering microfinance storehouse however has earned the enmity of longtime Top Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from the beggarly.

Hasina has made a number of scathing verbal assaults towards the the world over revered 2006 Nobel Relief Prize winner, who used to be as soon as perceptible as a political rival.

Yunus and 3 colleagues from Grameen Telecom, one of the crucial corporations he based, have been accused of violating labour rules after they didn’t manufacture a employees’ welfare capitaltreasury within the corporate.

A labour courtroom within the capital Dhaka convicted and sentenced them to “six months’ simple imprisonment”, govern prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan instructed AFP, including that every one 4 have been right away granted bail pending appeals.

All 4 abandon the costs. Dozens of community staged a mini demonstration of assistance outdoor the courtroom for Yunus, who left with out chatting with media.

“This verdict is unprecedented,” Abdullah Al Mamun, a attorney for Yunus, instructed AFP. “We did not get justice.”

Yunus is dealing with greater than 100 alternative fees over labour legislation violations and alleged graft.

He instructed newshounds next one of the crucial hearings extreme year that he had now not profited from any of the greater than 50 social industry corporations he had arrange in Bangladesh.

“They were not for my personal benefit,” Yunus stated.

Some other of his legal professionals, Khaja Tanvir, instructed AFP that the case used to be “meritless, false and ill-motivated”.

“The sole aim of the case is to harass and humiliate him in front of the world,” he stated.

‘Travesty of justice’ 

Irene Khan, a former Amnesty prominent now running as a UN particular rapporteur who used to be provide at Monday’s verdict, instructed AFP the conviction used to be “a travesty of justice”.

“A social activist and Nobel laureate who brought honour and pride to the country is being persecuted on frivolous grounds,” she stated.

In August, 160 world figures, together with former US president Barack Obama and ex-UN secretary-general Restrain Ki-moon, printed a joint letter denouncing “continuous judicial harassment” of Yunus.

The signatories, together with greater than 100 of his fellow Nobel laureates, stated they feared for “his safety and freedom”.

Critics accuse Bangladeshi courts of rubber-stamping choices made by means of Hasina’s govt, which is all however positive to win every other time period in energy nearest year at elections boycotted by means of the opposition.

Her management has been an increasing number of company in its crackdown on political dissent, and Yunus’s reputation a few of the Bangladeshi crowd has for years earmarked him as a possible rival.

Amnesty World accused the federal government of “weaponizing labour laws” when Yunus was at trial in September and referred to as for a right away finish to his “harassment”.

Prison lawsuits towards Yunus have been “a form of political retaliation for his work and dissent”, it stated.

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