DHAKA: A courtroom in Bangladesh on Sunday granted bail to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in a USD 2.3 million embezzlement case. Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering using microcredit to assist impoverished folks, was sentenced to 6 months in jail in January on a separate cost of violating labour legal guidelines. He was granted bail in that case too and has appealed.
Prosecutor Mir Ahmmad Ali Salam stated the embezzlement case entails a staff welfare fund of Grameen Telecom, which owns 34.2 per cent of the nation’s largest cell phone firm, Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Norway’s telecom big Telenor.
“The fees contain the embezzlement of over 250 million takas and cash laundering. The accused gave the cash to commerce union leaders as an alternative of the employees. This manner they disadvantaged the atypical staff of their rightful earnings,” Salam stated.
Yunus and 7 different defendants appeared in courtroom Sunday and 6 others have been absent.
Defence counsel Abdullah Al Mamun informed the courtroom that Yunus, 83, and the others have been harmless.
Final 12 months, greater than 170 world leaders and Nobel laureates urged Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to droop authorized proceedings in opposition to Yunus. His supporters say he has been focused due to his frosty relations with Hasina. The federal government has denied the allegations.
