.webp)
A Dhaka court that sentenced Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus and three top officials of Grameen Telecom to six months’ jail in a case over violation of labour law has granted them conditional bail.
Dhaka Labour Court-3 Judge Sheikh Merina Sultana pronounced the judgment. Dr Yunus’ lawyer Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun said the court granted bail to all for one month on condition of appeal, reprots UNB.
Expressing dissatisfaction, Barrister Mamun said, “We did not get justice and will file an appeal petition with the High Court.”
The others accused in the case are — Ashraful Hasan, CEO of Grameen Telecom Trust, Trustee Nurjahan Begum, and Managing Director M Shahjahan.
The court set January 1 to pronounce the verdict in the case after hearing the arguments of both the prosecution and the defence on December 24, 2023.
"I have been punished for a crime that I haven't committed," Yunus told reporters after the hearing, reports AFP. "If you want to call it justice, you can."
Yunus is facing more than 100 other charges over labour law violations and alleged graft.
He told reporters after one of the hearings last month that he had not profited from any of the more than 50 social business firms he had set up in Bangladesh.
"They were not for my personal benefit," Yunus said at the time.
On June 6, 2023, Dhaka Labour Court-3 framed charges against the four accused.
Dr Yunus and the three others filed a petition challenging the legality of the charge framing and seeking a stay order on trial proceedings in the case.
The HC, on July 23 last year, issued a rule asking the government to explain as to why the indictment order against the four should not be scrapped.
On August 3, the Appellate Division directed the HC to dispose of the rule questioning the charge framing against Dr Yunus and others by the lower court in the case.
On September 9, 2021, Labour Inspector Arifuzzaman of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, filed the case with Dhaka’s 3rd Labour Court.
According to the case, during an inspection visit to Grameen Telecom, inspectors of the department found that 101 workers and staff members who were supposed to be permanent were not made so.
No participation fund and welfare fund was formed for them and five per cent of the company’s profit was not provided to the workers following the law. Upon a complaint, a criminal case was filed under sections 4, 7, 8, 117, 234 of the Labour Act.
