The Bangladesh Supreme Court has scrapped corruption charges against Chief Advisor Mohammad Yunus, filed by the country’s Anti-Corruption-Commission, effectively ending all of Yunus’ legal troubles.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court dismissed the ACC graft on money laundering case against the CA, after he was charged with misappropriating Tk25.22 crore (USD 2 million) from Grameen Telecom Workers’ Profit Participation Fund and illegally transferring the funds, violating anti-money laundering laws, according to The Daily Star.
The charges were formally filed against the accused in Dhaka on June 12, 2023, in a special judge hearing.
Contacted, Barrister Abdullah-Al-Mamun, principal lawyer for CA Yunus and the six others, said following the Appellate Division’s verdict, all charges against the accused were proven false and baseless.
This is not the first time that charges against the CA have been “legally” squashed, after he took charge as head of the interim government last year, following the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government.
As head of the Grameen Telecom, Yunus along with several others were charged with money laundering, and labour law violations, by the ACC in 2023, though all of these charges have been squashed by the courts, exonerating Yunus and his fellow accused.
On August 7, 2024, a day before Yunus was sworn in as Chief Adviser, the Labour Appellate Tribunal hurriedly reversed the decision of a Dhaka Labour Court which, on January 1, 2024, convicted and sentenced Yunus, who had served as chairman of Grameen Telecom, and three top officials of Grameen Telecom to six months’ imprisonment for labour law violations.
Three days after Yunus was sworn in as the Chief Adviser, on August 11, he was acquitted by a Dhaka Court in a corruption case after the ACC withdrew its own allegation (filed on June 12, 2024) against Yunus for misappropriation from Grameen Telecom workers’ fund.
