STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A man who's considered a superstar in lending money to the poor is on trial starting today. Muhammad Yunus is known for advancing the idea of microlending, helping people improve their living conditions or get a business going by granting very, very small loans. He and his colleagues with the Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts years ago. Now, in his homeland of Bangladesh, he and 13 others face charges of embezzlement and corruption. Muhammad Yunus spoke with our co-host Michel Martin, and he asserted that the charges against him were cooked up by Bangladeshi's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
MUHAMMAD YUNUS: She thinks I'm a political threat to her because I'm so popular in the country. As a result, she wants to make sure all the respect people have for me is completely devastated so that I'm accused of all kinds of terrible, terrible accusations.
MICHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: Have you been made privy to any of the evidence against you?
YUNUS: I go to the court every other week. There are two cases against me - one brought by the labor directorate, depriving the workers of their due shares of benefits. Another case is from the Anti-Corruption Commission. The Commission went to the court saying that I have done forgery and embezzlement and money laundering in dealing with the workers by putting money in an account, and suddenly money disappeared. No money has disappeared. So we went to the court to give a judgment, and finally, court says, yes, you have to pay that money. So we went ahead and paid that money in an account. So there's no question of embezzlement, no question of money laundering, nothing. Amnesty International - they have been attending these proceedings, and they say these are political harassment. These are weaponization of judiciary. There is no basis of any legal action that they have brought out.
MARTIN: Do you think that you will receive a fair trial?
YUNUS: Well, in Bangladesh, it's very difficult. This is a country - you have to make it very clear. It's a kind of one-party country. It's one country, one leader, one party, and one narrative. Everything is decided by the leader. She decides everything. So very little flexibility anyone could have.
MARTIN: But you have received letters and expressions of support from former President Obama, former Secretary of State Clinton. But I wanted to ask you about the Biden administration. Has the Biden administration weighed in in any way, and would you like them to?
YUNUS: Yes, very much. Everybody who support - those who know me and said that if there's a trial, it should be a fair trial, it should be transparent trial, it should not be something fishy. It should not be done as a harassment. So those kind of utterances have been made by State Department spokesperson already. And many governments have raised this issue with the government of Bangladesh.
MARTIN: Do you feel - how do you feel? I mean, do you feel disappointed? Do you feel hurt? Do you feel...
YUNUS: No, I feel very frustrated. I feel very frustrated. I feel like I'm dead. If I cannot do things, what is the use of me to be around. So I said, I feel like suddenly I'm dead. I cannot function because I'm so busy tackling all these things, funny, fancy things he comes up with the raising these issues and confuse everybody. And everybody said, is it true? Is it true? I said, look, this has no foundation? They never had any foundation, all these 20 years.
MARTIN: I'm sure there are many countries in the world that would welcome you. Have you ever thought of leaving?
YUNUS: Many many countries have formally approached me, offering that you come to our country. We give you citizenship. We give you all the positions in the office, and the finance, do the things within the country, outside the country, globally. Individual persons, wealthy persons approached me that if you wish to come to our country, I'll take care of everything you need and so on. Then I said, so, look, you are talking about me. I'm only one person. I've been working with hundreds of people around me to do all these things. And if I leave, everything will be destroyed. Already, there are attempts with the inspiration from the government that all these companies that I created should be taken over. And I don't want to leave the country, because all my life, whatever I have done, is here. And this is my - what I call a seed bed of all the ideas that grow from us and spread all around the world.
MARTIN: This is Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank. Mr. Yunus, thank you for speaking with us.
YUNUS: Thank you very much, Michel. I'm very happy to talk to you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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