Let int’l lawyer review Prof Yunus’ cases

Expressing concern over the continuous judicial harassment and potential jailing of Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, 242 global leaders, including 125 Nobel laureates, yesterday proposed that a small team of independent legal experts, led by a senior international lawyer, reviews the cases against him.

On January 1, Prof Yunus and three of his Grameen Telecom colleagues were sentenced to six months in jail in a case over labour law violations and were granted bail.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the leaders noted with concern the rushed legal process and lack of consistency with regards to how Bangladesh's laws are applied. The criminal verdict included time in prison for four board members of Grameen Telecom, a nonprofit organisation, including 83-year-old Prof Yunus, who serves the organisation in an uncompensated non-executive chairman role, they said.

"It is evident that, at most, only a small civil or administrative fine against Grameen Telecom was warranted under the relevant laws. We would like to begin immediately [the review] and request that any jail sentences for Professor Yunus and his colleagues be suspended pending the review," read the letter published on the website "protectyunus".

The letter was published as a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post on January 29. It follows two previous letters -- one in March 2023 and another in August 2023 -- by the global leaders.

The letter was signed, among others, by former Nobel laureates Barack Obama, Jose Ramos-Horta, Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Mohamed ElBaradei, and Albert Arnold Gore Jr.

"We agree with Irene Khan, the United Nations special rapporteur for the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, who left the courtroom on January 1, 2024, and called the verdict 'a travesty of justice'," they said.

They further noted that the January 7 polls in Bangladesh witnessed the suppression and imprisonment of opposition leaders, and crackdowns on the media and independent voices.

It says that responding to a previous letter, Hasina told a news conference in August last year that the signatories should "send experts, and lawyers to see if there is any injustice or whether the lawsuit was wrongfully done".

"We accept your invitation. This examination should include not only the labour law case whose verdict was delivered on January 1, but also the current investigation being conducted by the Anti-Corruption Commission."

The letter said Prof Yunus has received 61 honorary degrees from universities in 24 countries. Yunus Social Business Centres have been established at 107 universities in 39 countries. He has received 136 awards from 33 countries, including national honours from 10 countries, it said.

"For all these reasons, leaders and citizens everywhere are watching closely how he is being treated by his own government. Prof Yunus and his fellow defendants should not be facing the prospect of imprisonment.

"We urge you to uphold Bangladesh's international human rights obligations including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Bangladesh is a state party, by immediately putting an end to this travesty of justice," the global leaders said.

CHARGE SHEET AGAINST YUNUS OKAYED

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday approved the charge sheet in the case filed against Prof Yunus and 13 others in connection with the misappropriation of about Tk 25.22 crore of Grameen Telecom Workers' Profit Participation Fund, reports our court correspondent. 

Prof Yunus is the chairman of Grameen Telecom.

The charge sheet is likely to be submitted to the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka today, investigation officer Gulshan Anwar Prodhan, a deputy director of the ACC, told The Daily Star.

The 13 other accused are Grameen Telecom Managing Director Nazmul Islam, directors Ashraful Hassan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, M Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee, Sramik-Karmachari Union President Kamruzzaman, General Secretary Firoz Mahmud Hasan and representative Mainul Islam, Jatiya Workers Federation Office Secretary Kamrul Hasan, and lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Yusuf Ali.

Kamrul was not named in the first information report of the case; but his name has been included in the charge sheet.

On May 30 last year, IO Gulshan filed the case with the ACC's integrated district office in Dhaka.