The Labour Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday cancelled the six-month jail sentences of Grameen Telecom chairman and Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and three others in a case filed over labour law violations.
MA Awal, acting chairman of the tribunal, handed down the verdict, accepting appeals submitted by the convicts seeking cancellation of a six-month jail sentence in the case.
The other three appellants were Grameen Telecom鈥簊聽 former managing director, Ashraful Hasan, and directors Nur Jahan Begum and Mohammad Shahjahan.
The development came a day after the 84-year-old Yunus was named head of the proposed interim government.
The scheduled hearing on the appeal was on August 14, but the hearing was brought forward following a petition submitted by both the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, which filed the case, and the convicts, said Yunus鈥檚 lawyer, Abdullah Al Mamun.
During the appeal hearing, Abdullah Al Mamun pointed out various legal points before the court, seeking the cancellation of the jail sentence and acquittal.
DIFE inspector Md Tariqul Islam, who was one of the plaintiffs in the case, told the court that they had no objection if the court acquitted the convicts.
聽No lawyer was present on behalf of DIFE on that day.
Expressing satisfaction over the verdict, Mamun told journalists that the court accepted their appeal and cancelled the sentence as there was no merit to running the case.
On January 1, the Dhaka Labour Court 3 sentenced Yunus and three others to six months imprisonment and fined each Tk 30,000 in the case decried by different quarters as politically motivated.
聽Soon after the verdict, Yunus, who is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank, told reporters, 鈥業 was punished for an offence that I did not commit.鈥�
聽Later, the four convicts filed their appeal with the tribunal on January 28 in the case filed by DIFE on September 9, 2021.
The court convicted Yunus and others of violating labour laws for failure to create a worker鈥簊 participation fund and a workers鈥� welfare fund and to deposit 5 per cent of the profits to the workers鈥� welfare fund.
They were also convicted for failing to appoint Grameen Telecom workers permanently after the conclusion of the apprenticeship, and not giving them annual leave, encashment of leave, and cash payment against leave to workers or employees.
All four accused deny the charges, and they told the court on November 9 last year that the company鈥檚 workers and employees were appointed on a contractual basis according to their own policies.
Grameen Telecom is a non-profit organisation as per the Companies Act, so its dividends are not distributable but are spent on social development, they argued.
