A Bangladesh court sentenced, this Monday (1st), Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and three other people to six months in prison for alleged violations of labor legislation. The decision may be appealed.
Yunus, 83, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for creating the “bank for the poor”, a microcredit system responsible for lifting millions of people out of poverty. Now, he is being accused by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of “sucking the blood of the poor” for not having created an assistance fund for employees of the financial institution. Other accusations include problems with proving the regular hiring of 100 workers.
Yunus denies any wrongdoing. “We are being punished for a crime we did not commit,” he told the press in his first interview after the decision. Abdullah Al Mamun, the banker's lawyer, was equally “furious” with the verdict and assured that he will appeal the decision. “The State was unable to prove anything. We present 109 contradictions. If there is a contradiction, even a man accused of murder is released,” he said.
The UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Irene Khan, who was present at the trial, described the verdict as a “parody of justice”. “As a citizen of Bangladesh, on the first day of 2024, I am shocked and terrified to see what is happening to the rule of law in this country,” Khan told the press.
“The Labor Court has been used as a weapon against a Nobel Peace Prize winner while labor laws are violated in the most severe way every day, in every factory and even in the streets of violence, and the government does nothing,” he added.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has had a tense relationship with Bangladeshi authorities since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took power.
In 2010, for example, a documentary was released that exposed possible illegal transfers of funds from institutions managed by Yunus.
In recent years, Hasina has also criticized Yunus for allegedly influencing the World Bank to cancel financing for the construction of a megaproject in the country.
Yunus faces more than 170 cases in which he is accused of corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and labor law violations.
In an open letter sent to Hasina on August 28, 176 world leaders, including former US President Barack Obama, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and more than 100 Nobel laureates, expressed concern about the “ continued lawsuits and harassment” against Yunus.
The verdict against the Nobel Peace Prize winner is released just days before the general elections in Bangladesh, which are scheduled for January 7th.
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