Yunus conviction politically motivated

The conviction of Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus appears to be "politically motivated", the Clooney Foundation for Justice's TrialWatch initiative said in a report released on Friday.

Based on its review of the proceedings, there are significant grounds for finding that the case against Prof Yunus constitutes an abuse of process, the report said, urging the Labour Appellate Tribunal to overturn the conviction for alleged violations of the country's labour law.

The Clooney Foundation for Justice published a statement on its website in this regard the same day.

The statement says the TrialWatch's report finds that the proceedings against Yunus appear to have been improperly motivated based on a combination of factors -- the fraught political climate in which the trial took place; the many other cases brought against Yunus; the statements made by Sheikh Hasina about him; the expedited nature of the proceedings; the apparent selective targeting of Yunus amongst many other individuals at Grameen Telecom arguably subject to the same law; the authorities' unusually aggressive and potentially unforeseeable interpretation of the Labour Law; and procedural irregularities.

According to the statement, Prof Yunus's supporters say that the case is part of a relentless campaign by Hasina's administration to discredit and undermine him.

Over 150 cases have reportedly been brought against Yunus and his affiliated companies since Hasina came to power in 2009.

A vocal critic of Yunus, she has described him as a "bloodsucker of the poor" and, on another occasion, suggested that he should be "plunged into the Padma River".

The concerns around the proceedings against Yunus are especially relevant as the growing government crackdown on its critics before the January 2024 general election prompted the CIVICUS Monitor to give Bangladesh's civic space its worst rating, with reports of sweeping arrests of opposition figures.

Hundreds of global leaders and Nobel Laureates, including former US President Barack Obama and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have signed two open letters in which they described the recent cases against Yunus as "continuous judicial harassment" and expressed their "profound concern".

On January 1, 2024, less than seven months after the charges were framed, Prof Yunus was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine -- just a week before the "disputed general election" returned Hasina to power.

The case was based on alleged violations of Bangladesh's Labour Law by Grameen Telecom, a company that Yunus founded in the 1990s to help the poor acquire cell phones and use them to earn a living.

Yunus, who serves as the company's non-executive chairperson of the board, was convicted alongside three other Grameen Telecom Board members targeted for prosecution.

There are eight members in the board of directors.

All four defendants appealed against their convictions on January 28, 2024, and the Labour Appellate Tribunal has stayed the lower court's verdict till March 3 (today).

Yunus and his co-defendants are currently on bail.

Meanwhile, a different court will hold a hearing in another case against Yunus and members of the Grameen Telecom Board today.