Nobel Peace Prize winner sentenced to six months in jail in Bangladesh

A Bangladeshi court has sentenced a Nobel Peace Prize winner to six months in jail – after more than 170 world leaders and Nobel laureates called for the legal proceedings to be suspended.

Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered using microcredit to help impoverished people, was accused of violating the country’s labour laws and was granted bail at the hearing in Dhaka today. He has 30 days to appeal.

Grameen Telecom, which he founded as a non-profit organisation, is at the centre of the trial.

The head of the Third Labour Court of Dhaka said in her verdict that 67 of Grameen Telecom’s employees were supposed to be made permanent and that the employees’ participation and welfare funds were not formed.

Sheikh Merina Sultana also said that, following company policy, 5% of the company’s dividends were supposed to be distributed to staff.

She found Yunus, as chairman of the company, and three other company directors guilty, sentencing each to six months in jail.

Grameen Telecom owns 34% of the country’s largest mobile phone company, Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Norway’s telecom giant Telenor.

The Nobel laureate is also facing several other charges involving alleged corruption and fund embezzlement.

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Yunus’s supporters believe the charges were filed to harass him amid a wider complex political context and frosty relations with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Bangladesh‘s government has denied the allegations.

In August, global leaders including former US president Barack Obama, former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and more than 100 Nobel laureates urged Ms Hasina to suspend all legal proceedings against Yunus.

The group said in a letter that they were deeply concerned by recent threats to democracy and human rights in Bangladesh.

Yunus founded Grameen Bank in 1983 which gives small loans to entrepreneurs who would not normally qualify for bank loans. The bank’s success in lifting people out of poverty led to similar microfinancing efforts in many other countries.

Ms Hasina’s administration began a series of investigations into Yunus after she came to power in 2008.

At that time, he had criticised politicians in the country, saying they were only interested in money, while Ms Hasina called him a “bloodsucker” and accused him of using force and other means to recover loans from poor rural women as head of Grameen Bank.

In 2011, Ms Hasina’s administration began a review of the bank’s activities. Yunus was fired as managing director for allegedly violating government retirement regulations.

He was also put on trial in 2013 on charges of receiving money without government permission, including his Nobel Prize award and royalties from a book.

Bangladesh is holding a general election on 7 January but the country’s main opposition the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia, is boycotting the vote.

The party said it does not have any confidence in Ms Hasina’s administration to hold a free and fair election.

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