An appeals court in Bangladesh has granted bail to Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who had earlier been sentenced to six months in prison for violating the country’s labour laws.
The court in Dhaka also agreed to hear an appeal against his sentence.
Yunus, who pioneered the use of microcredit to help impoverished people, especially women, filed the appeal seeking bail on Sunday morning before it was granted. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 2006.
The 83-year-old economist and three other officials from telecommunications company Grameen Telecom were sentenced to six months in prison on January 1, but they were immediately granted 30 days of bail to appeal against the verdict and sentence.
Sunday’s court decision said the bail will remain effective until a final decision is made on the appeal over the sentencing.
Defence lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun said the first hearing on the appeal will be held on March 3rd.
Yunus founded Grameen Telecom as a non-profit organisation.
His supporters have said the case is politically motivated, a charge the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was elected for a fourth consecutive term earlier this month, has denied.
In the original verdict, the judge said Yunus’s company violated Bangladeshi labour laws.
At least 67 Grameen Telecom workers were supposed to be made permanent employees but were not, and a “welfare fund” to support the staff in cases of emergency or special needs was never formed.
The judge also said that according to company policy 5 per cent of Grameen’s dividends were supposed to have been distributed to staff but were not.
The judge found Yunus, the chairman of the company, and the three other company directors guilty, and fined them each 30,000 takas while also sentencing each to prison.
Yunus said after the original verdict that he was innocent.
“We are being punished for a crime we did not commit. It was my fate, the nation’s fate. We have accepted this verdict, but will appeal this verdict and continue fighting against this sentence,” he told reporters after the verdict was announced on January 1st.
Grameen Telecom owns 34.2 per cent of the country’s largest mobile phone company, Grameenphone, a subsidiary of Norway’s telecoms giant Telenor.
Yunus is known to have close connections with political elites in the West, especially in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.
He faces a number of other charges involving alleged corruption and embezzlement.
His supporters say he has been targeted because of his frosty relations with Mr Hasina.
