It is humiliating for an innocent citizen to stand in an iron-cage dock during a court hearing, said Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus yesterday.

"I have been facing a lot of harassment … it will continue … We all were in the iron cage today [yesterday] throughout the entire period [hearing]. Although I was told to stay [outside the dock]. I said that since everyone was standing [in the dock], I would also stay with them. I was in the iron cage [court dock] the entire time," he said.

Prof Yunus was speaking to reporters after a Dhaka court framed charges against him and 13 others in a case filed over misappropriation of about Tk 25.22 crore of Grameen Telecom Workers' Profit Participation Fund.

Prof Yunus and the others, now on bail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Judge Syed Arafat Hossain of the Special Judge's Court-4 of Dhaka read out the charges.

Before that, the judge dismissed their petitions for discharging them from the charges. In an order, he said that the charges brought against Prof Yunus and others were primarily proved and thus charges were framed against them.

The court fixed July 15 for the start of the trial.

Emerging from the courtroom, Prof Yunus said, "I have raised the question before, and I am raising it again before everyone. Is it fair? Making an accused stand in an iron-cage against whom the trial is ongoing? I am not talking about my case.

"As far as I know, an accused is innocent until proven guilty. To me, it is very humiliating that an innocent person has to stand in an iron-cage during a hearing. It's very condemnable … it shouldn't be applied to anybody," he said.

The microcredit pioneer urged everyone to raise their voice in this regard so that the matter is reviewed.

"Why would anything like this happen in a civilised country? Why would a citizen have to stand like an animal in a cage during a court hearing? The trial has not begun yet and there is no scope of getting convicted. I am raising this question as to why an innocent citizen was inside the cage."

Prof Yunus called upon the legal experts and those involved in the judicial system to review whether there is any need for having such a provision or "we should follow what civilised countries do to be included in the list of civilised countries".

Replying to a journalist's query, Prof Yunus said, "I don't know if I have anything to do with words like 'money laundering', 'embezzlement', and 'fraud'. I never learnt those, nor did I do it. All of a sudden, these heavy words are being imposed on me … This is something that neither I nor my colleagues can comprehend."

He went on to say, "We have spent our entire lives serving the people. We did not come here to embezzle money. We have come here spending our own money. This is our history. But we do not understand why we have to face harassment."

Referring to the charges brought against him, Prof Yunus said, "Use of words like I am a bloodsucker; a loan shark; an enemy of the state; I blocked the money for the Padma Bridge; and I am hatching conspiracies everywhere are instances of harassment. These words are being said time and again.

"We were forced out of the Grameen Bank. New stories are being written like this every year. These things have been continuing. And this is harassment," he added.

The 13 other accused are Grameen Telecom Managing Director Nazmul Islam, directors Ashraful Hassan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, M Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee, Sramik-Karmachari Union President Kamruzzaman, General Secretary Firoz Mahmud Hasan, and representative Mainul Islam, Jatiya Workers Federation Office Secretary Kamrul Hasan, and lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Yusuf Ali.

On June 2, Anti-Corruption Commission's Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kazol placed his arguments in favour of framing charges against the accused. Defence lawyers, including Abdullah-Al-Mamun and Mohammad Shaheenoor Islam, submitted their arguments before the court in favour of discharging the 14 accused, including Prof Yunus.