Prosecutors say that 83-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sentenced to six months in prison for allegedly breaking Bangladeshi labor rules.
On Monday, Yunus and three other Grameen Telecom workers were found guilty in a case that his supporters claim has political motivations.
Well-known for his innovative work with Grameen Bank—for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006—Yunus and his organization have played a significant role in using microcredit to reduce poverty.
Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, has accused Yunus of “sucking blood from the poor,” but his supporters say that Yunus was once thinking of starting a political party to compete with Hasina’s Awami League, therefore the accusations are meant to malign him.
The judge gave Yunus and the co-accused bail despite the conviction.Despite the conviction, Yunus and the other co-accused were given bail by the court, giving them a month to appeal the decision.
One of Yunus’s attorneys, Khaja Tanvir, described the case as politically motivated harassment, expressing worries expressed by human rights organizations on the government’s purported persecution of political dissent as the nation gets ready for an important election on January 7.
