An appellate court in Bangladesh granted bail to Nobel laureate Muhammed Yunus on Sunday, as reported by local media. Previously, Yunus was sentenced to six months imprisonment for labour law violations in his company Grameen Telecom. This bail order has paved the way for an appeal to be heard against his case. Yunus, known for his pioneering work in microfinance and microlending fields, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
Yunus, along with Ashraful Hassan, Nurjahan Begum, and M Shahjahan—three directors at Grameen Telecom—were sentenced to imprisonment on January 1st, 2023 by Sheikh Merina Sultana, chairman of the Third Labour Court of Dhaka. The charges pertained to Grameen Telecom’s non-compliance with the labour laws, including failing to make 67 workers permanent employees and to establish a welfare fund to assist staff during emergencies. All four had their bail pleas accepted, following which Yunus and his colleagues appealed against their convictions.
On Sunday, Chairman MA Awal of the Labour Appellate Court Tribunal ordered to grant bail to the four defendants, a decision which shall remain in effect until the case is heard on appeal. Following the bail announcement, Yunus questioned the motives behind his previous conviction to local reporters, querying whether the workers or the government had initiated it.
As conveyed by Yunus’s lawyer Abdullah-Al-Mamun to The Daily Star, a petition challenging the sentence has been submitted, containing some 25 points against it. Mamun also revealed that the first hearing for the appeal is slotted for March 3rd.