<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b><font color="#3984c6">Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Tuesday said Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus has been sentenced in a case filed by the aggrieved people, and the government is not a party to it.</font></b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>“The government cannot dictate the court. I would like to say, paying due respect to Dr Yunus, that the government is not a party to the case. Aggrieved private people filed the case,” he told reporters while responding to a question at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.</div><div><br></div><div>He, however, preferred to consider his remarks as a citizen of the country and Awami league joint general secretary, not as the foreign minister.</div><div><br></div><div>Earlier, a TV journalist drew the Foreign Minister's attention to a letter from US congressmen to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina regarding Dr Yunus.</div><div><br></div><div>If the US congressmen wrote any such letter, they are telling the government to interfere with the court. Can the government do that? Is it logical?” — said the foreign minister.</div><div><br></div><div>UNB could not verify the authenticity of the letter.</div><div><br></div><div>Earlier, a Dhaka court sentenced Dr Yunus and three top officials of Grameen Telecom to six months’ jail, with fine of Tk 25000 each, in a case over violation of labor law.</div><div><br></div><div>The others accused in the case are: Ashraful Hasan, CEO of Grameen Telecom Trust; trustee Nurjahan Begum; and managing director M Shahjahan.</div><div><br></div><div>They were accused of not making 101 workers and employees of Grameen Telecom permanent, not encashing public leave, and not depositing certain dividends to the Workers Welfare Foundation.</div><div><br></div><div>In the 84-page verdict, the judge said the charges of violating labor laws were proved against them, reports UNB.</div><div><br></div><div>The court, however, granted them conditional bail.</div><div><br></div><div>Dr Yunus claimed that he had been punished for a crime he did not commit.</div><div><br></div><div>“I have been punished for a crime that I haven’t committed,” Yunus told reporters after he was convicted in a case over violation of labor law. “If you want to call it justice, you can.”&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div><div><br></div>