A Bangladesh court on Monday has sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to d3ath for crimes against humanity, prompting cheers in a packed courtroom as the verdict was read aloud.
Hasina, 78, had defied court orders to return from India to attend her trial, which examined whether she had ordered a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising that ultimately led to her ouster in August 2024.
The ruling, broadcast live on national television, comes ahead of Bangladesh’s first elections since her removal, scheduled for February 2026.
“All the… elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled,” Judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder told the court in Dhaka. Hasina was found guilty on three counts, including incitement, ordering killings, and failing to prevent atrocities. “We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence — that is, a sentence of death,” the judge said.
Former Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, also a fugitive, was sentenced to death after being found guilty on four counts of crimes against humanity. Former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who pleaded guilty, received a five-year prison sentence.
Bangladesh has faced political turmoil since the end of Hasina’s rule, with violent incidents disrupting election campaigning. According to the United Nations, up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns during her final days in power, events central to the charges against her.
Chief prosecutor Tajul Islam said ahead of the verdict that he hoped the sentence would fulfill the public’s “thirst for justice” and mark an end to crimes against humanity. Prosecutors had filed five charges, including failure to prevent murder, under Bangladeshi law.
The trial, held largely in absentia, heard months of testimony detailing how Hasina allegedly ordered mass killings. She dismissed the proceedings as a “jurisprudential joke” and refused to recognize the court, declining her state-appointed lawyer and rejecting all charges. In a written interview with AFP in October, she said she was not surprised by the anticipated guilty verdict, calling it “preordained.”
Security forces surrounded the court in anticipation of Monday’s ruling, with armored vehicles and checkpoints across Dhaka. Nearly half of the city’s 34,000 police officers were deployed, following a month in which crude petrol bombs were hurled at government buildings, buses, and religious sites.
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry also summoned India’s envoy, demanding that New Delhi prevent Hasina from speaking to journalists or using media platforms to “spew hatred.”
Despite the verdict, Hasina remains defiant. She expressed mourning for the lives lost during the crackdown but also criticized the interim government’s ban on her party, the Awami League, warning that it is deepening the nation’s political crisis ahead of elections in the 170-million-strong country.
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Wasted life
Odikwa serious
If Nigeria was like this the leaders won’t be stealing blindly
Too bad