Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death for ‘crimes against humanity’; ousted Bangladesh PM reacts

A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death, concluding a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.

Hasina was “found guilty on three counts”, including incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities, judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the packed court in Dhaka.

"We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence -— that is, sentence of death."

The ruling comes months before the country's parliamentary elections, expected to take place in early February.

Here's what Hasina said

Hasina, 78, called the guilty verdict and death sentence in her crimes against humanity trial “biased and politically motivated”, Reuters reported.

The former PM had defied the court order to return to Bangladesh from India, where she is currently living in exile, to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against the student-led uprising that ousted her.

"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 issued from hiding in India.

"Not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed, tested fairly," she said, adding that she was given no fair chance to defend in court. “We lost control of the situation, but cannot characterise what happened as a premeditated assault on citizens,” the former PM stated.

Hasina's Awami League party has been barred from contesting, and it is feared that Monday's verdict could stoke fresh unrest ahead of the vote.

The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh's domestic war crimes court located in the capital Dhaka, delivered the guilty verdict amid tight security and in Hasina’s absence after she fled to India in August 2024.

The verdict can be appealed in the Supreme Court.

But Hasina's son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, told Reuters on the eve of the verdict that they would not appeal unless a democratically elected government took office with the Awami League’s participation.

What did the judgment say?

According to a report by Dhaka Tribune, the judgment concludes that Hasina and the two other accused, former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, had orchestrated and enabled atrocities during the July-August movement.

The Awami League leader was tried in absentia. She had fled to New Delhi after the fall of her regime in Dhaka.

"Accused prime minister Sheikh Hasina committed crimes against humanity by her incitement order and also failure to take preventive and punitive measures under charge 1," the International Crimes Tribunal said as cited by Al Jazeera.

"Accused Sheikh Hasina committed one count of crimes against humanity by her order to use drones, helicopters and lethal weapons under charge number 2," the special tribunal said.

What are the charges against Hasina?

Sheikh Hasina, who headed the now-banned Awami League party, is facing five serious charges.

These include orchestrating mass killings of protesters in Dhaka, the use of helicopters and drones to fire on civilian crowds, the murder of student activist Abu Sayed, the incineration of bodies in Ashulia to destroy evidence and the coordinated killing of demonstrators in Chankharpul.

The case against Hasina and her two aides concerns crimes between 15 July and 5 August 2024.

The formal charge documents run 8,747 pages, containing references, seized evidence and a detailed list of victims, Dhaka Tribune reported.

Live telecast of court proceedings

Bangladesh Television broadcast the court proceedings live. Justice Golam Murtaza, who heads the country's International Crimes Tribunal-1, a three-member tribunal overseeing this case, read out the verdict on Monday afternoon.

Muhammad Yunus, who heads the interim government in Bangladesh, is likely to hold the next elections in February. Hasina’s party would not get a chance to contest the race.

Politically motivated?

Hasina had challenged the legitimacy of the Tribunal in an email interview with Reuters last month.

“These proceedings are a politically motivated charade,” she said. “They have been brought by kangaroo courts, with guilty verdicts a foregone conclusion. They are presided over by an unelected government which consists of my political opponents.”

She also said she was denied adequate notice of the hearings and any meaningful opportunity to mount a defence, adding that she was not personally involved in the use of lethal force or other alleged crimes.

Although the Muslim-majority South Asian country of 170 million people has been governed by the interim administration headed by Nobel Peace laureate Yunus since Hasina's departure, political stability has yet to return.

In the Reuters interview, Hasina warned of growing anger among supporters of the Awami League and said that millions of party loyalists would boycott the parliamentary elections in February.

(With inputs from agencies)