Dhaka: A Bangladesh court on Monday handed former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a death sentence after a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a violent suppression of a student-led uprising last year. The ruling comes just weeks before national elections scheduled for early February, in which her Awami League has already been disqualified from participating a move that has raised fears of renewed unrest.
The verdict was delivered by the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka under heavy security and in Hasina’s absence, as the 78-year-old has been in India since fleeing the country in August 2024. She repeatedly ignored orders to return and face trial over allegations that she directed security forces to use lethal force during the protests that ultimately led to her removal from office.
Hasina condemned the judgment as “biased and politically driven,” stating from hiding that the tribunal had been “set up and controlled by an unelected government with no democratic legitimacy.” The ruling may be appealed to the Supreme Court, though her son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, said they would only pursue an appeal once a democratically elected government was in place and the Awami League was allowed to participate.
Prosecutors argued that Hasina personally authorized the deadly crackdown on the July-August 2024 student demonstrations. A UN report estimates that up to 1,400 people were killed and thousands more injured many from gunfire marking the deadliest violence in Bangladesh since the 1971 independence war.
Hasina was represented by a state-appointed lawyer, who insisted the charges were unfounded and called for her acquittal. She herself had dismissed the proceedings as predetermined, saying a guilty verdict was “inevitable.”
Tensions have surged nationwide in recent days, with at least 30 crude bombs detonated and 26 vehicles set on fire, though no casualties have been reported.
