Dhaka, Bangladesh - Bangladesh's highest court has upheld the government's decision to remove Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus from his pioneering small loan agency Grameen Bank.
The ruling ends his decades of leadership at the bank he set up to lend money to the poor.
A panel led by Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque says the appeal to keep Yunus as managing director of the bank is dismissed.
Yunus has said his removal was illegal. Thursday's verdict means he has lost his last legal battle and now he must leave the bank.
Bangladesh's central bank removed the 71-year-old Yunus as Grameen's chief executive earlier this year, saying he violated retirement laws. Yunus has been a prominent critic of the government in recent years. - Sapa-AP