CNN: 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.
Hasina has been staying in self-imposed exile in India’s capital New Delhi since August 2024, after student protesters forced her and the Awami League political party out of power. She was not present at the court in Dhaka.
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 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.
For a nation still reeling from the popular revolt that ousted her, the verdict represents a stunning culmination. For many, it offers judicial validation for an uprising fueled by years of simmering anger against the creeping authoritarianism that defined her long rule.
The verdict’s impact is also being felt in New Delhi. Bangladesh’s interim government has formally demanded the extradition of its former leader, but India has so far remained silent on the request.
New Delhi on Monday said it will “engage constructively with all stakeholders.”
The turning point was a government crackdown that may have killed up to 1,400 people, according to the UN’s human rights office (OHCHR). Up to 25,000 were also injured, the court heard.
The UN declared the verdict on Monday as an “important moment for victims” but cautioned that rights advocates “regret the imposition of the death penalty, which we oppose in all circumstances.”
“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.
