Who is Muhammad Yunus?

 Student leaders in Bangladesh say they want Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser to the interim government and a spokesperson for Yunus said he has agreed to their demand.

Here are some fast facts about Yunus:

The 84-year-old and his Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for work to lift millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans of under $100 to the rural poor of Bangladesh.

He had been the subject of scathing verbal attacks from former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was once seen as a political rival.

Her administration was firm in cracking down on political dissent, and Yunus’s popularity among the Bangladeshi public had earmarked him as a potential rival.

He faced corruption accusations in Bangladesh and was put on trial during Hasina’s rule, but maintained the charges against him were politically motivated.

In August 2023, 160 global figures, including former US President Barack Obama and ex-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, published a joint letter denouncing the “continuous judicial harassment” of Yunus.

In January, Yunus and three colleagues from Grameen Telecom, one of the firms he founded, were accused of violating labour laws when they failed to create a workers’ welfare fund in the company and convicted of violating Bangladesh’s labour laws. All four were immediately granted bail pending appeals.