Bangladesh: Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus convicted of violating labour laws

Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel peace laureate, was convicted on Monday (Jan 1) of violating Bangladesh's labour laws, news agency AFP reported citing a prosecutor.

Prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan told AFP, "Professor Yunus and three of his Grameen Telecom colleagues were convicted under labour laws and sentenced to six months in simple imprisonment". Khan added that all four were immediately granted bail pending appeals.

The 83-year-old Yunus and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel peace prize for their work to lift millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans of under $100 to the rural poor of Bangladesh. He pioneered a global movement, which is now known as microcredit.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

However, he was accused by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of "sucking blood from the poor".

Yunus and his colleagues from Grameen Telecom, one of his companies, were accused of breaking labour regulations when they neglected to establish a workers' benefit fund. But all four of them have denied charges.

Supporters of Yunus called the move politically motivated. They say that the government is attempting to discredit him because he once considered setting up a political party to rival Hasina's Awami League. Dozens of people staged a small rally in support of Yunus outside the court.

Yunus told reporters after the hearing: "I have been punished for a crime that I haven't committed. If you want to call it justice, you can."

The Nobel laureate is facing more than 100 other charges over labour law violations and alleged graft. He told reporters after one of the hearings last month that he had not profited from any of the more than 50 social business firms he had set up in Bangladesh.

"They were not for my personal benefit," Yunus said.

(With inputs from agencies)