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.
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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.”
Hasina had expressed “regret” for the deaths in an interview with This Week in Asia before the verdict, but denied personal wrongdoing, insisting the crackdown was necessary to restore order after the student-led protests over a job quota scheme turned violent.
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.