In the wake of an open letter of global leaders and Nobel laureates urging Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to halt the current trial proceedings against Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus, BNP on Tuesday demanded the immediate withdrawal of all cases filed against him.
In a statement, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir described Dr Muhammad Yunus as a ‘heroic son’ of the soil.
“Dr Muhammad Yunus is a heroic son of the soil. People of this nation will remember him with respect for hundreds of years to come, and they will be ashamed of how such a revered man was treated by the government of this country,” the statement reads.
“We call stop of harassment of Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus. All cases against him (Dr Yunus) should be withdrawn immediately,” he said.
Stating that Dr Yunus is an eminent person of this country, Fakhrul said those who want to belittle and insult him, won’t be able to reach the same stature as him even if they are born again.
“Accept this inevitable fact and stop harassing him and halt lawsuits (against him),” the BNP leader said.
Earlier on Monday, more than 160 global leaders, including over 100 Nobel Laureates, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressing their deep concern about the safety and well-being of Professor Muhammad Yunus – Bangladesh’s first and only Nobel Laureate.
“One of the threats to human rights that concerns us in the present context is the case of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. We are alarmed that he has recently been targeted by what we believe to be continuous judicial harassment,” they said in the letter.
Addressed directly to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the letter was signed by Nobel Prize laureates, elected officials, business figures, and civil society leaders.
“We respectfully ask that you immediately suspend the current judicial proceedings against Professor Yunus, followed by a review of the charges by a panel of impartial judges drawn from within your nation with some role for internationally recognized legal experts. We are confident that any thorough review of the anti-corruption and labor law cases against him will result in his acquittal,” the letter reads.
