A Dhaka court framed charges against Nobel Laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus and 13 others on Wednesday in a case filed on charge of embezzling and laundering Tk 252.2 million of Grameen Telecom Workers' Profit Participation Fund.
Syed Arafat Hossain, Judge of the Special Judge's Court no-4 in Dhaka, passed the order after a detail hearing on charge framing.
Prof Yunus and other accused, now on bail, pleaded to be not guilty and demanded justice after the judge read out the charges to them.
Before that, the judge dismissed three petitions submitted for discharging them from the charges. It also fixed July 15 for starting testimony in the case.
Charges were also framed against Grameen Telecom Managing Director Nazmul Islam, former Managing Director Ashraful Hassan, directors Nazneen Sultana, Parveen Mahmud, M Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, and Professor S M Huzzatul Islam Latifee.
The accused list also included lawyers Md Yousuf Ali and Jafrul Hasan Sharif, Grameen Telecom Sramik-Karmachari Union President Md Kamruzzaman, Secretary Firoz Mahmud Hassan and representative Mainul Islam, and Jatiya Workers Federation's Office Secretary Kamrul Hasan.
On June 2, Anti-Corruption Commission's (ACC) Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kazal placed his arguments in favour of framing charges against the accused.
At the same time, defence lawyers, including Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, submitted their arguments before the court in favour of discharging the 14 accused, including Prof Yunus.
Upon hearing the parties, the court fixed June 12 for passing an order on framing charges.
Later, lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun said, "We sought deferment of the date of taking testimony for two months, as we will move to the High Court to cancel the charge framing order. However, the court set July 15 for taking testimony in the case. We will appeal to the High Court against the order."
After being indicted in the case, Prof Yunus in his reaction said, "We stayed in the iron cage for a long time on Wednesday. I was told to keep away from the iron cage. But I was standing in the iron cage all the time, as my colleagues were there. I have raised the question before, is it fair or not? As far as I know, as long as the accused is not found guilty by any court, he is presumed innocent."
He further said, "An innocent citizen has to stand in an iron cage (accused's cage) during the hearing, it is very humiliating to me. It is heinous. It should not be applied to anyone. Let there be a review on it."
Gulshan Anwar Prodhan, ACC deputy director (DD) and investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge-sheet against Prof Yunus and 13 others in the case on February 1.
On April 2, the Judge of the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court in Dhaka took into cognizance the charges pressed against the 14 accused. The court also transferred the case to the Special Court no-4 in Dhaka for trial.
On 30 May 2023, the ACC DD filed the case against Prof Yunus and 12 others with the ACC's Integrated District Office no-1 in Dhaka. Accused Kamrul Hasan's name was included after investigation.
It was alleged in the case that the accused embezzled Tk 252.2 million and transferred it illegally, which is an offence under the Money Laundering Prevention Act.
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