The High Court on Wednesday summarily rejected a petition filed by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and six of his Grameen Telecom colleagues for cancellation of embezzlement and money laundering charges against them.
The court also directed the court of Dhaka Special Judge 4 to conclude the trial of the case against Yunus and his colleagues ‘as early as possible, preferably in one year’.
‘We do not find any reason for interfering with the trial court’s order that framed charges against Yunus and other accused to start trial with recording deposition of prosecution witnesses,’ the bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Ebadoth Hossain observed in its order. Â
The court further observed, ‘Our consolidated opinion is that there is no bar for continuing proceedings of the case.’
Yunus’ lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that an appeal would be filed against the High Court’s decision as there is no merit of the case, which was filed by the government to harass the Nobel laureate.Â
Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said that there would be no bar for the trial court to resume trial of Yunus on August 5 following the High Court’s order.
On June 12, the Dhaka special judge court 4 Judge Syed Arafat Hossain framed fund embezzlement charges against Yunus, six of his colleagues and seven others.
The 13 other accused are the Grameen Telecom managing director Nazmul Islam, directors Ashraful Hassan, Nazneen Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, M Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee, Sramik-Karmachari Union president Kamruzzaman, general secretary Firoz Mahmud Hasan and representative Mainul Islam, Jatiya Workers Federation office secretary Kamrul Hasan, and lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Md Yousuf Ali.
Yunus and 13 accused are now freed on bail.
The court set July 15 for recording depositions of prosecution witnesses.
On February 1, the Anti-Corruption Commission submitted a charge sheet to the court against the 14 accused in the case.
Earlier on May 30, 2023, the ACC deputy director Gulshan Anwar Prodhan filed the case with its integrated district office in Dhaka-1.
Yunus, the chairman of Grameen Telecom, has been facing more than 170 cases, most of which are relating to alleged violation of the rights of workers.
Yunus and his Grameen Telecom colleagues were private persons, and the entire amount of Tk 437,01,12,621, as mentioned in the first information report of the case and the charge sheet, was the legal entitlement of a list of 164 employees out of profits of Grameen Telecom and not public money or public fund, according to Yunus’ lawyer.
He argued that the money laundering case against Yunus and his colleagues was a glaring example of abusing the law.
