The US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller has said that the United States has been following the case against Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and will watch Bangladesh’s January 7 general election very closely.

He made the remarks in a regular media briefing in Washington on Wednesday and the verbatim of the briefing is available on the website of the US Department of State.

Asked for remarks on New Year’s Day verdict against Nobel laureate and Presidential Medal of Honor recipient Professor Muhammad Yunus by a labour court, Miller said, ‘We have been following the case against him closely. We’ve seen, of course, the widespread international criticism of the verdict. For our part, we have encouraged the Bangladeshi Government to ensure a fair and transparent legal process, and we will continue to follow any further developments closely.’

He said that Muhammad Yunus had made significant contributions to the alleviation of poverty around the world, as reflected in his Nobel Peace Prize and numerous other international honours.

On January 1, the Dhaka Third Labour Court sentenced Yunus and three other top officials of Grameen Telecom to six months’ simple imprisonment in a case over violations of the labour law.

The questioner termed Bangladesh’s next general election as ‘dummy’ and wanted to know whether US government would legitimize such an election.

‘We support a free and fair election in Bangladesh. We have made that quite clear a number of times. We will watch the elections very closely, but of course I would never speculate in advance about what actions we may or may not take in response to any development,’ responded Miller.