A court in Bangladesh on Monday sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death, convicting her of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student uprising last year.
The International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic war crimes court based in the capital, Dhaka, delivered the verdict amid tight security and in the absence of Hasina, who fled to India in August 2024 at the height of the revolt against her government.
In her first comments on the verdict, Hasina described it as coming from a “kangaroo court established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate.”
“They are biased and politically-motivated,” she said in a statement emailed to the media. “In their odious call for the death penalty, they reveal the brazen and bloodthirsty intention of extremist figures within the interim government to depose Bangladesh’s last elected Prime Minister and to nullify the Awami League’s role as a political force.”
Following the verdict, Dhaka said on Monday it had asked India to extradite Hasina and her former interior minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who was also sentenced to death. Dhaka stated that India was “bound to do so under an extradition treaty.”
‘Crimes against humanity’
Earlier on Monday, the court convicted Hasina of “crimes against humanity,” concluding in its judgment that she “issued orders for the violent suppression of a student uprising that erupted last year.”
The interim government in Bangladesh had bolstered security measures in the capital and other areas in anticipation of the verdict. Paramilitary border guards and police were deployed as Hasina’s Awami League party called for a general shutdown in protest, describing the court as a “sham.”
A United Nations report in February stated that as many as 1,400 people may have been killed in the violence. The country’s health adviser under the interim government said that more than 800 people were killed and some 14,000 were injured.
Hasina, who has survived at least 19 assassination attempts during her political career, was ousted on 5 August last year and fled to India.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as head of an interim government three days after her fall. He has pledged to punish Hasina and ban the activities of her Awami League party.
Yunus has stated that his interim government will hold the next elections in February and that Hasina’s party will not be allowed to contest.
