'An ad, not statement for Yunus on Washington Post': Foreign Minister

Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Tuesday (30 January) said what appeared in the Washington Post regarding Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus was an advertisement, not a statement. 

"Washington Post published it as an advertisement. That is an advertisement, not news. Clearly, it was done by a lobbyist firm," he told reporters while responding to a question. 

The foreign minister said the lobbyist firm also did the same in the past. 

He said Bangladesh's judiciary is transparent, and the government is not a party to Yunus' case.

Dr Hasan said the aggrieved people of Yunus' organisation filed the case, and the trial is underway in a very transparent way.

Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus on Sunday (28 January) claimed that it was the government, not the workers of his company, who filed the labour law violation case against him.

When his attention was drawn to the claim, the Foreign Minister on Monday (29 January) said, "With due respect to him, I would like to say that what he said is not correct."

The minister said that the aggrieved workers of Yunus' company filed the case as they were deprived of what they deserved.

More than 241 global leaders, including more than 125 Nobel laureates, expressed their concern over the "continuous judicial harassment and potential jailing" of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus in a third open letter to Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

On 1 January 2024, Professor Yunus and three Grameen Telecom colleagues were convicted of labour law violations, sentenced to six months in jail, and given bail while appeals were considered.