Banker dismissed

Yunus did not attend the hearing on Thursday at which his last attempt to overturn a ruling dismissing him from his position of managing director of Grameen Bank on the grounds that he was too old failed.

"The Supreme Court has dismissed Yunus's final petition," Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters. "After this order, Yunus should not cling to his position any more. His legal battle is meaningless. He has wasted the time of the court."

Judges ruled that Grameen Bank was a government institution, not a private bank as Yunus and his legal team had maintained, meaning employees must abide by the state's mandatory retirement age of 60 for managing directors of banks.

The Bangladesh central bank had ordered that Yunus, who is 71, be dismissed on March 2 but he challenged the decision and went back to the office.

End of the legal route

On Thursday, one of Yunus' lawyers, Tamin Husain Shawan, told AFP that it appeared as if this was the "end of the legal route" after the hearing.

Yunus will now have to leave the bank that he founded and made famous with its micro-lending concept even if he thinks the decision is wrong.

Friends of Grameen, a group which has been lobbying against the Bangladeshi authorities' decision, said in a statement it was "deeply disappointed and saddened by the decision."

"We are extremely preoccupied about the independence of the bank and of microcredit institutions in Bangladesh."

"We are very sorry and disappointed by this ruling. It is going to affect Grameen Bank," Jolekha Begum, a Grameen Bank board member, told AFP.

Microfinance praised and criticized

In 2006, Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel peace prize "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below."

The "banker of the poor's" model for microfinance has been adopted in many developing countries around the world but has also come under considerable criticism recently in Bangladesh, India and other countries, as some observers say that microcredit does not lift the poor out of poverty but rather keeps them entrenched in it when they cannot pay off their loans.

Supporters of Yunus suspect that he has become a victim of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who was irked when Yunus set up a political party in 2007 for a brief moment and challenged her.

Hasina has accused Yunus of "sucking blood from the poor." Last year, a Norwegian documentary alleged he and Grameen Bank were dodging taxes.

However, they were cleared of financial irregularities by a probe conducted by the Norwegian government.

Analysts say Grameen Bank's huge influence in Bangladesh and its move into solar panels, mobile phones and other consumer goods has triggered the government's envy.

act/AFP/AP/Reuters
Editor: Ziphora Robina