Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus was found guilty on Monday of breaching labour laws in Bangladesh in a case his supporters deem politically motivated.
Yunus, an economist who won the Nobel Prize in 2006, and three of his colleagues at Grameen Telecom, a company he founded, were accused of failing to establish a pension fund, thereby violating labour laws.
They were pronounced guilty by a court in the capital, Dhaka, and sentenced to “six months imprisonment,” said lead prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan. He added that they were immediately released on bail pending an appeal.
The accused individuals deny the charges. “I’ve been punished for a crime I didn’t commit,” Yunus said after the verdict. “If you want to call this justice, you’re welcome to do so,” he added, with a hint of sarcasm.
“This verdict is unprecedented,” Yunus’s lawyer, Abdullah Al Mamun, told French news agency AFP. “We did not receive justice.”
Yunus face about a hundred other charges related to alleged labour law violations and corruption allegations.
The 83-year-old is known for lifting millions out of poverty through his pioneering microfinance bank. However, he has fallen out with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of “bleeding the poor dry.”
Yunus’s popularity among Bangladeshis has made him a potential rival to the Prime Minister, who is virtually assured of securing a fifth term in the upcoming legislative elections on 7 January, boycotted by the opposition.
