‘Stop Attacks on Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus’: Obama, 170 Others Urge Bangladesh’s Hasina – News18

Over 170 global figures including former US president Barack Obama, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and U2 lead singer Bono urged Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to stop the alleged “persecution” of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

“One of the threats to human rights that concern us in the present context is the case of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus. We are alarmed that he has recently been targeted by what we believe to be continuous judicial harassment,” the letter said.

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, famous for being a “banker to the poor”, faces swathes of lawsuits and the number of cases against him has increased over the past few weeks.

The letter said that this amounts to “judicial harassment” and is an “assault on democracy”.

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina responded sharply by saying that Muhammad Yunus is “begging” for an international statement. Hasina said that international experts can assess the ongoing legal proceedings against the Nobel laureate.

Hasina in the past few years has started to consider Muhammad Yunus, who along with his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, as something of a ‘public enemy’, the BBC said in a report.

The man, credited for introducing microfinancing which offers small, long-term loans to help poor people start their own small businesses, has recently been denounced as “bloodsucker” of the poor, with Hasina accusing his Grameen Bank of charging exorbitant interest rates.

“Join the movement to demand an end to his persecution,” wrote Hillary Clinton, wife of former US president Bill Clinton.

“If the gentleman (Dr Yunus) had so much self-confidence that he had committed no crime, he would not be begging for a statement at that international level,” Hasina said in response.

A separate report by news agency PTI said that Hasina was unhappy with Prof Yunus’ attempt to create a political party in 2007 backed by the military-backed caretaker government. The Awami League supremo was angry because the announcement came at a time when she was in prison.

However, Yunus did not follow through on the plan and said that politicians in Bangladesh are only after money, not for the people.

Muhammad Yunus faces cases where he is being accused of depriving his employees of job benefits and supposedly violating labour laws.

The Bangladesh government also forced him out of Grameen Bank on the grounds that he has served beyond the mandatory retirement age of 60 in 2011 and in 2013 they accused the Nobel Peace Prize laureate of evading taxes on overseas income.

Prof Yunus’ lawyer Abdullah Al-Mamun said these cases are influenced by the government and do not have a basis. People speaking to the BBC said that Hasina deeply resents Muhammad Yunus because his reputation could soar above that of her late father and Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was assassinated in 1975.

The Hasina regime’s attacks on the Nobel Peace Prize winner could increase the international criticism that Bangladesh is currently being subjected to. There are fears that the upcoming elections may not be held in a free or fair manner.