The Supreme Court of Bangladesh fines Nobel Peace Prize winner to pay more than a million dollars

The Supreme Court of bangladesh ordered this Sunday the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to pay 120 million taka (more than US$1 million) in taxes, in the latest in a series of legal actions against the award-winning economist by the authorities of the Asian country.

The Supreme Court today rejected Yunus’s appeal against an order from a lower court, Bangladesh Attorney General Abu Mohammad Amin Uddin told the media, agreeing with the prosecutors who were demanding the charges. taxes of various donations he made to three charitable trusts between the financial years 2011-12 and 2013-14.

Consulted by EFE, Yunus’ lawyer, Abdullah Al Mamun, was displeased with the order and reported that his client can still appeal it, although the same judges would be in charge of reviewing it.

“Yunus made the donations with his own income. Therefore, we believe that this order will have a social impact. Now people will be discouraged from donating.”lamented Al Mamun.

This is the latest legal move against Yunus by the Bangladeshi authorities since he was ousted from his post as managing director of microcredit firm Grameen Bank in 2011.

Last May, the Anti-Corruption Commission of bangladesh (ACC) filed a lawsuit against Yunus and 12 others for misappropriation of more than 250 million taka (about US$2.35 million) from a company’s worker welfare fund.

The prominent economist was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for having founded a bank to combat hunger and poverty in Bangladesh by providing loans to low-income people who wanted to start a business, although he was removed from it at the request of the Government, an order that Yunus appealed without success.

Bangladeshi authorities have focused attention on Yunus since a documentary was aired in 2010 exposing alleged illegal fund transfers between two Grameen Group entities.

Furthermore, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blames the economist for allegedly influencing the world Bank for this entity to cancel the funds for the construction of a bridge megaproject.