Ousted Bangladesh PM Sentenced to Death after Crimes Against Humanity Conviction
Sheikh Hasina, the ousted Prime Minister of Bangladesh, has been sentenced to death after being found guilty of crimes against humanity for the violent suppression of student protests last year that led to the collapse of her government.
A panel of three judges from the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court, delivered their verdict Monday, ruling that Hasina was responsible for inciting hundreds of extrajudicial killings carried out by law enforcement.
The courtroom, where some victims’ families were present, burst into applause as the judges delivered their sentence.
“Sheikh Hasina committed crimes against humanity by her incitement, order and failure to take punitive measures,” one of the judges said as he delivered the verdict.
It was “crystal clear” that she “expressed her incitement to the activists of her party… and furthermore, she expressed that she ordered to kill and eliminate the protesting students,” the judges said.
What began as peaceful student demonstrations over civil service job quotas transformed into a nationwide push for Hasina’s resignation. The turning point was a government crackdown that may have killed up to 1,400 people, according to the UN human rights office. Up to 25,000 were also injured, the court heard.
Hasina – who has been living in self-imposed exile in India and was not present at the court in Dhaka – slammed the “biased and politically motivated” tribunal on Monday.
The former prime minister faced five charges primarily related to inciting the murder of the protestors, ordering demonstrators be hanged, and ordering the use of lethal weapons, drones and helicopters to suppress the unrest. She has long-denied the charges.
“The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,” Hasina said in a statement shared by her Awami League party on social media, following the verdict.
“I reject the ICT’s other allegations of human rights abuses as equally unevidenced. I am very proud of my government’s record on human rights and development,” she added.
Hasina ruled the South Asian nation with an iron-fist from 2009 until her ouster in 2024. Now, analysts fear the verdict on Monday could set off a wave of political chaos ahead of national elections expected in February next year.
Last week, her lawyers submitted an appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions over “serious concerns about the lack of fair trial rights and due process.”
Hasina has been staying in self-imposed exile in India’s capital New Delhi since August 2024, after the student protesters forced her and the Awami League political party out of power.
The interim Bangladeshi government has formally requested her extradition but New Delhi has so far remained silent on the request.
Source: CNN
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