A Bangladeshi court has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to six months in prison over labour law violations, escalating what his supporters call a vendetta by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government against the microfinance pioneer.

A labour court in Dhaka on Monday convicted Yunus and three other executives in a case from 2021 over allegations including improper contracts and non-payment of benefits to workers at Grameen Telecom, which Yunus founded in the 1990s. Yunus and the three others, who deny the allegations, were granted a month’s bail during which time they plan to appeal, according to their legal team.

Yunus’s allies have alleged that the case — one of almost 200 that they say he and affiliated organisations are facing — is part of a campaign by Bangladeshi authorities to vilify the 83-year-old, one of the country’s most high-profile figures and a bitter and longtime rival of Sheikh Hasina.