Nobel laureate faces jail time

Dhaka, Bangladesh (AFP) — Bangladeshi Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus was facing six months in jail with a court set to rule on Monday on a labor law case decried by his supporters as politically motivated.

Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but has earned the enmity of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of "sucking blood" from the poor.

Hasina has made a series of scathing verbal attacks against the internationally respected 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was once seen as a political rival.

She is all but certain to win a fifth term in national elections next week after an opposition boycott.

Economist Yunus and three colleagues from Grameen Telecom, one of the firms he founded, are accused of violating labor laws when they failed to create a workers' welfare fund in the company.

All four deny the charges.

A labor court in the capital Dhaka has fixed the verdict for Monday afternoon, lawyers said.

"We proved that Professor Muhammad Yunus and others have violated the mandatory requirements of the labor laws," Khurshid Alam Khan, the lead prosecutor, told AFP ahead of the verdict.

He said Yunus could be sentenced to up to six months in prison if convicted.

"We hope the court will hand down the highest punishment," he said.

Yunus is facing more than 100 other charges over labor law violations and alleged graft.

Yunus told reporters after one of the hearings last month that he had not profited from any of the more than 50 social business firms he had set up in Bangladesh.