(File image) In this March 6, 2011 photograph, Bangladesh microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus emerges from the High Court in Dhaka – AFP Nobel-winning Muhammad Yunus lost a final appeal on Tuesday against his sacking from the pioneering microfinance bank he founded and reportedly told his staff it was ‘time to leave.’ "The appeal has been dismissed by the Supreme Court," Yunus's lawyer Tamin Husain Shawan, adding that the decision, made by the full seven-member court bench of judges, was unanimous. The central bank, which is nominally independent from the government, removed Yunus on March 2 on the grounds that he had failed to seek its approval when he was reappointed indefinitely in 1999. The High Court upheld the order in a March 8 ruling, with judge Muhammad Mamtaj Uddin Ahmed saying the sacking was legal and that Yunus had also exceeded Grameen Bank's mandatory retirement age of 60. Backed by a high-profile international lobby group, Yunus, 70, defied the sacking order by filing an appeal and continuing to work at Grameen's headquarters. But after Tuesday's legal defeat, he told staff there that it was time for him to leave and make way for new leadership, a witness said. "Yunus said 'I went to court to seek justice, but now I have received the verdict and it is my time to leave Grameen Bank,'" bank official Amimul Islam said. Another colleague, Atiar Rahman, a senior bank officer, said that Yunus ‘told employees he would be happy and relieved if the management of the bank were given to a competent successor.’ Grameen Bank cancelled a planned press conference late on Tuesday because of ‘unavoidable circumstances’, a spokeswoman said. Supporters say Yunus has been victimised by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who he crossed in 2007 when he set up a political party during a period of military rule. In December, following the release of a Norwegian TV documentary critical of Yunus, Hasina accused him of ‘sucking blood from the poor’ and pulling a financial ‘trick’ to avoid paying tax. Having exhausted his personal legal options, Yunus's only hope now resides in a separate appeal lodged by nine elected Grameen Bank board members but few observers expect the case to succeed.v
