Grameen Telecom Founder Found Guilty of Violating Workers’ Rights

BM Desk:

Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus was sentenced to 6 months in prison on Monday for violating labor laws. The verdict was delivered by Judge Sheikh Marina Sultana of the Dhaka Labor Court. Yunus was also fined Tk 25,000 (US$290).

The other defendants in the case are Grameen Telecom Managing Director Ashraful Hasan, Director Nurjahan Begum, and Mohammad Shahjahan. They were also sentenced to 6 months in prison, suspended.

In her verdict, the judge said that the defense had presented a flattering statement about the first defendant, Yunus. In it, he was called an international personality who has fought against poverty and won the Nobel Prize. But the judge said that the court was not trying Yunus as a Nobel laureate, but as the chairman of Grameen Telecom. 

She said that the evidence against Yunus and the other defendants had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 

In the meantime, security was tightened around the Labor Court and its surroundings in anticipation of the verdict. A large number of police were deployed. Representatives of national and international media had gathered an hour before the verdict to gather news.

Among those present in court to hear the verdict were photographer Shahidul Alam, his wife activist Rehnuma Ahmed, political analyst and Dhaka University teacher Asif Nazrul, and barrister Sara Hossain.

On September 9, 2021, Labor Inspector Arifuzzaman of the Department of Factories and Establishments filed the case against Yunus and the other four defendants in the third labor court of Dhaka. 

The case was filed under sections 4-A (7), 8, 117, and 234 of the Labor Act for not depositing the specified profit to the Workers Welfare Foundation, not making the jobs of the workers permanent, and not paying for the mass leave.