Muhammad Yunus says his removal from Grameen Bank was politically motivated Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has lost his final appeal in Bangladesh’s Supreme Court against his sacking from the Grameen micro-finance bank he founded.
The court upheld the decision by the central bank to remove him from office.
The bank said Professor Yunus had been improperly appointed while past retirement age.
But Professor Yunus said the attempt to remove him from the bank had been politically motivated.
The Grameen Bank has pioneered micro-lending to the poor by giving small loans to millions of borrowers.
This was Professor Yunus’s last legal option to keep his job as managing director of the Grameen Bank. In March Bangladesh’s High Court ruled that his dismissal was legal.
The appeal in the supreme court challenged that verdict.
“The Supreme court in a one-word order dismissed the appeal by Professor Yunus. We have to yet to see the written order,” one of his lawyers, Ms Sarah Hossain, told the BBC.
Professor Yunus’s removal from the Grameen Bank sparked criticism from some of Bangladesh’s foreign donors, including the US.
His supporters say he fell out with Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after trying to launch his own political party in 2007.
He says his dismissal is part of a government plan to take control of the bank. The government denies this.
In December last year, Ms Hasina accused Professor Yunus of treating Grameen Bank as his “personal property” and said it was “sucking blood from the poor”.
The Bangladeshi government set up a review committee the following month to look into the bank’s affairs amid reports it could be taken over.
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