Bangladesh convicts Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in 'politically motivated' labour law case

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws in a case decried by his supporters as politically motivated.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws in a case decried by his supporters as politically motivated.

“Professor Yunus and three of his Grameen Telecom colleagues were convicted under labour laws and sentenced to six months in simple imprisonment,” lead prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan told the AFP news agency on Monday.

He added that all four were immediately granted bail pending appeals.

Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but has earned the enmity of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.

Hasina has made several scathing verbal attacks against the internationally respected 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was once seen as a political rival.

Yunus and three colleagues from Grameen Telecom, one of the firms he founded, were accused of violating labour laws when they failed to create a workers’ welfare fund in the company.

All four deny the charges.

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