Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death over student protest crackdown that ended regime
The former prime minister was tried in absentia for the killing of hundreds of people during a student-led uprising last year
A Bangladesh tribunal sentenced ousted former leader Sheikh Hasina to death in absentia on Monday, ruling she should be hanged for crimes against humanity committed during a crackdown on student-led protests that triggered the downfall of her 15-year regime.
She was also given a life sentence on charges including incitement, ordering, and failure to prevent atrocities.
Hasina, 78, who has lived in self-exile in India since fleeing Bangladesh on August 5, 2024, was found guilty of three counts including incitement, issuing kill orders and failing to stop atrocities linked to the massive protests against her government.
More than 1,400 people, many of them young students, were killed over several weeks as police and security forces opened fire on demonstrators, culminating in protesters storming Hasina’s residence as she fled by helicopter.
Reading the punishment to a packed Dhaka court, Judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder said: “We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence – that is, a sentence of death.”
In a defiant response late on Monday, she flatly rejected the “biased and politically motivated” tribunal ruling, saying she was willing to face an independent court including the International Criminal Court in The Hague.