CIVICUS, a global civil society alliance, and the Asian Human Rights Commission have called on Bangladeshi authorities to immediately end the ongoing judicial process, which they termed as ‘harassment’ of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Prior to Professor Yunus’s upcoming trial this month, both CIVICUS and the Asian Human Rights Commission called for his conviction to be quashed and all other charges to be unconditionally dropped, said a press release issued on Thursday.
Yunus-founder of the micro-financing institution Grameen Bank-won the Nobel Peace Prize for the bank’s collective work in lifting millions out of poverty by granting microloans in 2006.
However, ‘he has earned the enmity of long-time prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has made several scathing verbal attacks against him,’ the release said.
The release stated that the judicial procedure of Yunus seems to be vindictive and politically motivated, highlighting the systematic targeting of civil society and critics by the Sheikh Hasina regime.
Stating that Professor Yunus has been facing over 100 cases on allegations of corruption and labour law violations, the release said that Yunus denied the charges, saying ‘the government was engaged in a judicial harassment campaign against him’.
In September 2023, the UN raised concerns about the ‘intimidation and harassment’ against Yunus which has persisted for almost a decade.
On January 1, 2024, Yunus was convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws and he and three of his Grameen Telecom colleagues were sentenced to six months in jail for failing to create a workers’ welfare fund in the company.
They were granted bail pending appeals. On June 12, 2024, Yunus and 13 others were indicted on charges of embezzlement from the welfare fund of his telecom company, but Yunus has denied these charges, and his trial is due to start on July 15.
In December 2023, the CIVICUS Monitor downgraded Bangladesh’s civic space to ‘closed,’ its worst rating. The downgrade is the result of attacks on civil society and a massive government crackdown on opposition politicians and independent critics in the run-up to the national elections held in January 2024.
In recent years, the CIVICUS Monitor has documented the targeting of human rights defenders like Adilur Rahman Khan and Nasiruddin Elan, who were sentenced to two years in jail in September 2023 for a decade-old report investigating extrajudicial killings by Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies.
The authorities have targeted journalists exposing state abuses and shut down media outlets critical of the state.
Mentioning that a new Cyber Security Act includes repressive language adopted from the previous draconian Digital Security Act used to criminalise thousands of online critics, the release said that Bangladesh authorities must halt their repression of activists and end the use of restrictive laws to silence all forms of dissent.
New Age
