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Dhaka, Bangladesh (AHN) – In a surprise move, the Bangladesh high court on Tuesday rejected the petition of Professor Muhammad Yunus and found that his dismissal by the central bank was legal.

Nine of the 12 directors of the micro-lending behemoth also appealed to the same court challenging the removal on the grounds that his reappointment in 1999 as the managing director had not been done with prior approval of the central bank.

Officials of Grameen, or “village,” Bank expressed disappointment over the high court dismissing Yunus from the position of managing director. Defense lawyers Tuesday evening told local TV networks said they would appeal the verdict Wednesday.

In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, Jannat-E-Quanine, Grameen Bank general manager for information and mass media coordination, hoped that in the meantime, “nothing will jeopardize the stability of Grameen bank.”

Hundreds of employees, members and borrowers of Grameen Bank formed a human chain to protest the dismissal of Yunus, who jointly received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006 with Grameen Bank, which he founded.

In his ruling, the judge said Yunus was working long past the mandatory retirement age and that the founder of the bank had been improperly reappointed.

The judge told the court that Yunus had been continuing in his office with no legal basis since 1999, violating one of the statutes of the partially state-owned bank. Such a claim could have jeopardized his hope to receive the Nobel prize.

Yunus, 70, was unceremoniously relieved of his duties last Wednesday through a Bangladesh Bank letter sent to the Grameen Bank corporate office.

Grameen Bank provides credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh and claims to reach 97 percent of villages and 8.35 million borrowers throughout the country that is one of the poorest in Asia.

Breaking a long silence, Yunus on Monday lambasted what he called political moves of the Bangladeshi government to grab Grameen Bank and turn it into a political “Vote Bank.”

Addressing a microcredit conference in Washington via video link, Yunus said “We hope we can survive and keep the character of the bank and keep the independence of the bank.”

“They want to put their own person at the chair of the bank, a political person,” Yunus said, adding, “The government today wants to take control of the board of the bank so that it becomes fully at their disposal.”

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