Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus indicted on embezzlement charges

Along with Muhammad Yunus, 13 others have also been accused of embezzling more than $2 million from the dividends of the employees of a telecom company

A Dhaka court on Wednesday indicted Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and 13 others for embezzling more than $2 million from the dividends of the employees of a telecom company.

Judge Syed Arafat Hossain of Dhaka Special Judge Court 4 rejected a plea for the dismissal of charges by the accused and ordered the indictment.

Judge Hossain read out the charges as Dr Yunus and the co-accused were on the dock and fixed the date for starting the trial hearing on July 15, a prosecution lawyer said.

Counsels for Yunus, 83, and the 13 others accused all currently on bail pleaded not guilty and demanded exemption of the clients but the court rejected the plea saying the charges brought against the accused were primarily proved and thus, charges were framed against them.

Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering microcredit to help impoverished people, especially women, while the Grameen Bank, which he had founded, also secured the prize on the same occasion.

The prosecution has accused Yunus and the others of embezzling Taka 250 million (more than $2 million) from the workers welfare fund of Grameen Telecom.

Grameen Telecom owns a 34.2 per cent stake in Bangladesh's largest mobile phone operator, Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Norway's telecom giant Telenor.

Meanwhile, speaking with reporters outside the court, Yunus said: We were in the cage (dock) today for a long time . . . why in a civilised country a citizen will stand like a beast during the hearing when he is yet to be proved guilty.

He said as far as his understanding goes until an accused is proved guilty he should be considered innocent but yet all through (the hearing) we were inside the iron cage.

Earlier in January, Yunus was sentenced to six months in prison on a separate charge of violating labour laws but was granted bail while the sentence was challenged before the Supreme Court's High Court Division.

Yunus faces over 150 other cases, including major corruption charges that could see him jailed for years if found guilty while the economist denies all wrongdoing.

More than 241 global leaders, including over 125 Nobel Laureates and former US President Barack Obama, have expressed their concerns via an open letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over Yunus' continuous judicial harassment and potential jailing.