Nobel peace laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and three other Grameen Telecom officials were convicted on Monday of labour law violation and sentenced to simple imprisonment for six months in a case decried by different quarters as politically motivated.Nobel peace laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and three other Grameen Telecom officials were convicted on Monday of labour law violation and sentenced to simple imprisonment for six months in a case decried by different quarters as politically motivated.
The Dhaka Labour Court 3 also fined Yunus, the chairman of Grameen Telecom, one of social business firms the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner founded, its former managing director Ashraful Hasan, and directors Nur Jahan Begum and Mohammad Shahjahan Tk 30,000 each.
The court chairman, Sheikh Merina Sultana, ordered that they would need to serve 25 more days in jail for failure to pay the fine, said prosecution lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan expressing satisfaction over the verdict.
The court pronounced the verdict in the presence of the four amid tight security in and around the courtroom.
Yunus and his three colleagues, however, did not go to jail immediately as the court granted them bail for one month pending appeal to the higher court following their petitions soon after the verdict, he said.
After the verdict, 83-year-old Yunus, who is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank, told reporters, ‘I was punished for an offence that I did not commit. If you want to call it justice, you can.’
He said, ‘Today is the first day of the English New Year. The whole world celebrates this day. Everyone celebrates it as a day of joy, but we have come to court today to hear the verdict. The sorrow remained in our hearts today. I received this pain on this happy day,’ said Yunus.
The court in the 84-page verdict also ordered the payment of all dues to Grameen Telecom employees in 30 days.
Terming the verdict unprecedented, Abdullah Al Mamun, lawyer for Yunus, said, ‘We did not get justice from this court. An appeal would be filed, challenging the verdict.’
Mamun also said that the prosecution failed to prove the charges as the defence presented 109 contradictions. ‘If there is one contradiction, even a murder accused gets acquittal,’ he added.
Yunus, who is facing 175 cases, has earned the enmity of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of ‘sucking blood’ from the poor.
In her three consecutive terms, the prime minister made several scathing verbal attacks against the internationally respected Nobel winner, who was once seen as a political rival.
The court convicted Yunus and his three colleagues of violating labour laws for failure to create a workers participation fund and a workers’ welfare fund and to deposit 5 per cent of the profits to the workers welfare fund.
They were also convicted of failure to make final appointment of the Grammen Telecom workers after the conclusion of the apprenticeship, and not giving the annual leave, encashment of leave, and cash payment against leave to workers or employees.
All four accused deny the charges, and they told the court on November 9 that the company’s workers and employees were appointed on a contractual basis according to their own policies as the activities of the company are contract-based.
The company is also giving the provident fund gratuity, earned leave, and retirement leave like permanent employees, they argued, adding that the allegation of non-permanent employment is the subject of administrative and civil cases.
Grameen Telecom is a non-profit organisation as per the Companies Act, so its dividends are not distributable but are spent on social development, they argued.
A number of noted lawyers and human rights activists, including rights activists Sharmeen Murshid, Irene Khan, Sara Hossain, Dhaka University Law Professor Asif Nazrul, Farida Akhtar and photojournalist Shahidul Alam, also went to the court to hear the verdict.
Irene Khan, former chief of Amnesty International now working as a United Nations special rapporteur, said in her reaction at the court premises, ‘I am shocked to see such a verdict on the first day of the New Year.’
She also said the conviction was ‘a travesty of justice’. A social activist and Nobel laureate who brought pride to the country are being persecuted on frivolous grounds.’
On September 9, 2021, labour inspector SM Arifuzzaman of the Department of Inspection of Factories and Establishments filed the case with the Dhaka Labour Court 3.
On June 6, the court framed charges against Professor Yunus and the three. Yunus had appealed to the High Court, seeking cancellation of the order framing the charges. The Appellate Division dismissed his plea on August 20.
On August 22, the Labour Court began recording the testimony of prosecution witnesses, which ended on November 9. Four officials of the DIFE testified during the trial.
After the concluding argument, on December 24, the court fixed the date to announce the verdict.
In August, 160 global figures, including former US president Barack Obama and ex-UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, published a joint letter denouncing the ‘continuous judicial harassment’ of Yunus.
They also urged the government to halt the trial against Yunus. The signatories, including more than 100 of his fellow Nobel laureates, said they feared for his safety and freedom.
Criticising the statement, prime minister Sheikh Hasina asked global leaders to come and see if there was injustice here.
‘You people send experts and lawyers instead of giving a statement. I am inviting you people to see if there is any injustice or whether the lawsuit was wrongfully done,’ said the prime minister.
Amnesty International, in a statement, also accused the government of ‘weaponising labour laws’ when Yunus went to trial in September and called for an immediate end to his ‘harassment.’
