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Bangladeshi Nobel laureate could face prison

The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has condemned the conviction of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

Yunus, along with three others, has been sentenced to six months in prison in Bangladesh for alleged violations of labour law.

The four people convicted deny the allegations. They have been granted a month’s bail, during which time they plan to appeal, according to their legal team.

Yunus (pictured, centre) won the Nobel prize as a result of his work to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh. He pioneered the global ‘micro-credit’ movement in an effort to lift millions of Bangladesh’s rural poor out of poverty.

‘Vendetta’

The IBAHRI says that he is facing more than 100 other charges of labour-law violations and alleged corruption.

According to the human-rights body, his supporters view the conviction as a vendetta held by Bangladesh’s government against the micro-finance pioneer.

Irene Khan (UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression) has called the conviction “a travesty of justice”, saying that “a social activist and Nobel laureate who brought honour and pride to the country is being persecuted on frivolous grounds”.

‘Harassment’

In August, IBAHRI director Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, alongside 160 global figures, published a joint letter denouncing what they described as the “continuous judicial harassment” of Yunus.

After the verdict, the Nobel laureate stated that the outcome was “contrary to all legal precedent and logic”.

The IBAHRI says that it awaits the outcome of the appeal.