Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus Sentenced to 6-Months Jail in Bangladesh

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who is the chairman of Grameen Telecom, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in Bangladesh on Monday over alleged labour law violations.

His supporters alleged that the Nobel Laureate was targeted because of his stance against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

A labour court in Dhaka announced the decision against Yunus and three of his colleagues in the Grameen Telecom.

The court, however, granted Yunus and the three others a month’s bail after they furnished bonds of 5,000 takas each.

The Nobel laureate is believed to have had a personal issue with Hasina. The Awami League government in Bangladesh decided to remove him as head of the Grameen Bank in 2011 on charges of violating the country’s retirement age rules.

Although the world continued hailing him as the saviour of the poor and the marginalised in Bangladesh, Hasina often accused him of “sucking the blood” of the poor.