A SPECIAL tribunal today sentenced Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to death on charges of crimes against humanity for her crackdown on a student uprising last year that killed hundreds of people.
The protests brought an end to Ms Hasina’s 15-year rule.
The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal also sentenced former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan to death for his involvement in the use of deadly force against protesters.
Both Ms Hasina and Mr Khan fled to India last year and were sentenced in absentia.
A third suspect, a former police chief, was sentenced to five years in prison after becoming a state witness against Ms Hasina and pleading guilty.
A three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, announced the tribunal’s ruling.
Some of those in the packed courtroom cheered when Justice Mazumder announced the death penalty for Ms Hasina.
Ms Hasina and Mr Khan were accused of killing hundreds of people during a student-led uprising in July and August of 2024.
The country’s health adviser under the country’s current interim government said more than 800 people had been killed and about 14,000 were injured. But, the United Nations in a February report said up to 1,400 may have been killed.
Ms Hasina says the charges are unjustified, arguing that she and Mr Khan “acted in good faith and were trying to minimise the loss of life.”
“We lost control of the situation, but to characterise what happened as a premeditated assault on citizens is simply to misread the facts,” she said Monday in a statement denouncing the verdict.
Ms Hasina called the ruling “biased and politically motivated” and accused the tribunal of being “rigged” and alleged that it was “established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate.
“In their distasteful call for the death penalty, they reveal the brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government to remove Bangladesh’s last elected prime minister, and to nullify the Awami League as a political force.”
Ms Hasina cannot appeal the verdict unless she surrenders or is arrested within 30 days of the judgment.
Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of an interim government after Ms Hasina was ousted on August 5 2024.
Mr Yunus has vowed to punish Ms Hasina and banned the activities of her Awami League party.
Ms Hasina’s Awami League party called on Monday for a nationwide shutdown to protest against the verdict.
