Court effectively bars Bangladeshi Nobel laureate from leaving country

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – The Bangladesh High Court issued a ruling Monday that prevents Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and three of his colleagues who are accused of violating labor laws from traveling abroad without its permission.

The ruling came after the government’s Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) appealed before the court a day earlier, challenging another court order that suspended Yunus’s jail term and granted him bail in the labor law violation cases.

The High Court also issued a ruling seeking to learn why the six-month jail sentence and bail he secured in January should not be declared invalid.

Yunus, the 83-year-old chairman of Grameen Telecom, a nonprofit company, has been embroiled in a longstanding row with the government. He is battling at least 168 cases, including alleged tax evasion and misappropriation of profits.