6-month sentence for Dr Yunus cancelled

A Dhaka tribunal has acquitted Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus and three top officials of Grameen Telecom of a labour law violation case.

MA Awal, chairman (in-charge) of the Labour Appellate Tribunal, handed down the verdict on Wednesday (August 7).

Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun moved for Yunus during the hearing in the court.

According to the case statements, Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) officials inspected the Grameen Telecom office in the capital’s Mirpur on August 16, 2021, and found several violations of labour laws there.

On January 1, the Labour Court-3 of Dhaka sentenced Prof Yunus, also chairman of Grameen Telecom, and its directors Ashraful Hassan, M Shahjahan and Nurjahan Begum to six months’ imprisonment each for violating labour laws.

The court also fined them Tk 30,000 each, in default of which they would have to serve 25 more days in prison.

On January 28, Prof Yunus and his colleagues filed appeals with the Labour Appellate Tribunal against the labour court’s sentence.

On September 9, 2021, Labour Inspector (General) SM Arifuzzaman filed the case with the Labour Court-3 of Dhaka against the four.

The court framed charges in the case on June 6 last year.