Yunus moves SC for review

Muhammad Yunus has moved the Supreme Court for a review of the Appellate Division order that threw out his appeal against a High Court ruling upholding the Nobel laureate's sacking as Grameen Bank managing director. The full bench of the Appellate Division, headed by then chief justice A B M Khairul Haque, had dismissed his appeal on Apr 5. Yunus's lawyer Sara Hossain told bdnews24.com that they appealed to review the order. The Supreme Court is on vacation now. The appeal, filed on Dec 15, would be heard after the vacation ends. On Mar 8, the High Court had rejected Yunus's claim that his sudden sacking on Mar 2 by the central bank and financial sector regulator was arbitrary and illegal. In its decision, the High Court had found that Yunus, 70, had no legal authority to act as the micro-lender's managing director, since its board had not obtained the Bangladesh Bank's sanction to re-appoint him beyond the bank's official retirement age of 60. Yunus had argued that Grameen Bank had been given special status and it was exempt from the rule. After the Apr 5 hearing, attorney general Mahbubey Alam had said there is a possibility of filing a petition to review the verdict. "Let's see whether they file any review petition," he had said. Prime Minister Skeikh Hasina had accused Yunus, who briefly set up his own political party in 2007 during the military-run caretaker government, of using 'tricks' to avoid taxes and 'sucking blood of the poor' with his bank's loans. Her comments were made after a Norwegian television documentary "Caught in Micro Debt" by Danish filmmaker Tom Heinemann aired on Dec 1 last year. He claimed Yunus and his associates wrongly diverted nearly $100m of grant money in 1996 to another company - Grameen Kalyan - which was not involved in micro-credit operations, without respecting procedures laid down by the donors. Heinemann's report alleged that after the Norwegian authorities raised objections to the alleged transfer of funds, Grameen bank returned about $30m. The aid money was from Norway, Sweden and Germany.