Bangladesh’s leader Muhammad Yunus has been acquitted in a graft case filed by the nation’s Anti-Corruption Commission, just days after he was sworn in to run an interim government following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina.

A special court in Dhaka acquitted the Nobel Prize-winning economist along with 13 other people, The Daily Star reported on Sunday, citing an official with the anti-graft commission. If he was found guilty of money laundering in that case, Yunus faced the risk of life imprisonment. 

A day before he was sworn in as the chief adviser to the interim government with prime ministerial powers, Yunus was acquitted in a labour violation case in which he had been sentenced to six months in jail. Human-rights lawyers have described both the cases as politically motivated. 

Abdullah-Al-Mamun, a lawyer for Yunus, didn’t respond to calls from Bloomberg News. 

It’s a swift reversal of fortunes for Yunus, 84, whose supporters say former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was behind the legal pressure. He had been frequently portrayed as a nemesis to Hasina, who once accused Yunus of “sucking blood from the poor”. Yunus has called her downfall a “second liberation” to the country. 

After Hasina, 76, fled the country last week following a student-led uprising, the protesters’ attention turned to her loyalists in the judiciary and the central bank. Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan resigned as protesters called for all the judges to step down, while Bangladesh Bank governor Abdur Rouf Talukder stepped aside. 

Yunus’s interim government needs to shore up the economy, which is highly dependent on a massive garment-export sector and now a US$4.7 billion programme from the International Monetary Fund. Foreign currency reserves need to be stabilised after dropping to US$20.5 billion last month from a peak of US$48 billion about three years ago. 

A microfinance pioneer, Yunus is untested as a political administrator, adding to the uncertainty on how he will go about rebuilding a country of over 170 million people. He has spent the first days in his new role urging for calm and warning against attacks on minority groups in the mostly Muslim country. 

Yunus and the advisory council discussed the attacks on religious minorities over the weekend to work with the representatives of these groups to “find ways to resolve such heinous attacks”. The talks are taking place as minority Hindu groups staged rallies across the country for a third day on Sunday, demanding for protection and justice.

Members of minority communities faced at least 205 attacks in 52 districts since Hasina’s downfall, according to data compiled by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.

The police have called an end to their strike on Sunday after Sakhawat Hussain, who heads the Home Ministry, gave them a stark choice to return to work by this Thursday or lose their jobs.

Human Rights Watch said the situation for minorities, particularly the Hindus, is extremely dangerous, and it is crucial that public order is restored at the earliest. 

“There is no police presence in many places to ensure their safety after policemen were targeted in reprisals for years of abuse under the Hasina government, including during the recent student protests,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the deputy Asia director with the Human Rights Watch. 

  - Bloomberg