Economist Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2006, found guilty in labor law case

His supporters denounce a politically motivated verdict, while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused the popular economist of “sucking the blood of the poor”.

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Muhammad Yunus, was found guilty of violating labor laws in Bangladesh on Monday (January 1). A court in the capital Dhaka sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment, AFP learned from senior prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan. The latter specified that the economist was immediately released on bail, pending appeal.

Alongside three collaborators, also convicted at first instance, Muhammad Yunus is accused of not having created a provident fund within Grameen Telecom, one of the companies he founded. The four accused reject these accusations.

“I was punished for a crime I didn’t commit.”

Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize 2006

at the end of the hearing

“This verdict is unprecedented”Abdullah al-Mamun, one of his lawyers, told AFP. “We didn’t get justice.” Khaja Tanvir, another lawyer for the economist interviewed by AFP, discusses a case “worthless, false and unjustified (…). The only purpose of this file is to harass and humiliate him in front of the whole world.”

Targeted by government attacks

Muhammad Yunus, in addition, faces around 100 other charges relating to alleged labor law violations and allegations of corruption. In November, he told reporters that he had not profited from any of the more than 50 businesses he had set up in Bangladesh. “They were not intended for my personal benefit, whether Grameen Bank or many other organizations”. Supporters and supporters of the Nobel Prize denounce legal proceedings launched for political reasons.

Muhammad Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions of people out of poverty through his pioneering microcredit bank, but he has fallen out with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who accused him of “suck blood” poor. The economist’s popularity among the Bangladeshi population has made him a potential rival of the Prime Minister, who is practically guaranteed to win a fifth term in the legislative elections which are to be held on Sunday, and which the opposition is boycotting.

Critics accuse the country’s courts of rubber-stamping the decisions of Sheikh Hasina’s government, which has become increasingly firm in its repression of political opposition. In August, 160 international personalities, including former American President Barack Obama and former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, published a joint open letter denouncing the “continuous judicial harassment” of which the microcredit pioneer is a victim.