A court in Bangladesh has sentenced deposed former 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.
The ruling by the International Crimes Tribunal – Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court located in Dhaka – was delivered amid tight security and in Hasina’s absence after she fled to India in August 2024.
It comes months ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held in early February, which Hasina’s Awami League party is not allowed to contest.
While the verdict has added to fears of fresh unrest ahead of the vote, reports said it can be appealed in the Supreme Court.
Hasina’s son and adviser Sajeeb Wazed, however, told Reuters that they would not appeal unless a democratically elected government took office with the Awami League’s participation.
Earlier, prosecutors told the court that they had uncovered evidence of her direct command to use lethal force to suppress a student-led uprising in July and August 2024.
According to a United Nations (UN) report, up to 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests between July 15 and August 5, 2024, with thousands more injured — most of them by gunfire from security forces.
Hasina was represented by a state-appointed defence counsel who told the court that the charges against her were baseless and pleaded for her acquittal.
Ahead of the verdict, Hasina dismissed the accusations and the fairness of the proceedings, asserting a guilty verdict was “a foregone conclusion”.