Nobel peace winner Muhammad Yunus convicted in Bangladesh labour law case.
A Bangladeshi court sentenced Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus to six months in jail for violation of the country’s labour law.
This verdict comes the day ahead of the 7 January election in Bangladesh ordered Yunus and other three executives of the Social Business Company to serve prison sentences.
His supporters said this is a politically motivated move by the government, this is harassment by the government.
Why Sheikh Hasina wants Yunus behind bars?
Muhammad Yunus is an 83-year-old economist and Nobel Peace Prize winner; he is credited for lifting millions of people out of the poverty line with his microfinance bank. The bank which he founded in 1983 gives Bangladesh the reputation of being the home of microcredit.
His popularity as Bangladesh’s first-ever Nobel laureate in 2007 increased when he founded his political party the Nagorik Shakti which was soon applauded and then he emerged as a potential politician and rival of the Hasina government.
A few months later he abandoned plans to contest elections due to lack of support for his political movements. The administration began a series of investigations against Yunus, he has been accused of many charges of corruption and violation of laws.
Hasina alleges Yunus
Opposition and his supporters criticized and claimed that his popularity has placed him as a potential rival which caused tension among Hasina’s government.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Accused him of sucking the blood of poor people.
This is not the first time when Yunus has been accused. In 2011, Central Bank accused Yunus of Grameen Bank because he had served beyond the mandatory retirement age of 60.
In 2013, he was accused of evading tax officials overseas his income, including his Nobel Prize award, and royalties from books. He is facing more than 100 other charges over labour law violations and corruption.
After one of his hearings last month, Yunus told reporters that he had not profited from any of the more than 50 social business firms he had set up in Bangladesh.
A letter protesting Yunus’s “continuous judicial harassment” was released in August by 160 prominent personalities from throughout the world, including former US President Barack Obama and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Comments 1