Sheikh Hasina has been found guilty in absentia of ordering the use of deadly weapons against protesters in a popular uprising
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on Monday handed down in absentia a death sentence to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in a crimes against humanity case.
The verdict found her guilty of ordering a violent crackdown on student-led protests last year, according to media reports.
The charges against Hasina include murder, attempted murder, torture, and allegedly ordering the use of deadly weapons against the protesters.
“The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate. They are biased and politically motivated,” Hasina said in a statement.
Hasina, who fled to India after the uprising in 2024, said in a recent interview with RT that the verdict was a “foregone conclusion.” She now lives in India.
Up to 1,400 people died, most by gunfire from security forces in the crackdown, per UN estimates. The protests ended after she fled the country.
Others who have been charged in the case are ex-Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. Al-Mamum was the only accused present in the court.
The chief adviser of the interim Bangladesh government currently running the country is Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus. Bangladesh is slated to hold elections in 2026. Hasina’s Awami League, which had been in power for 15 years before the uprising, has been barred from participating.
Hasina is the daughter of Bangladesh’s first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in a 1975 military coup.
Ahead of the verdict, hundreds of protesters marched toward Dhanmondi 32, the former residence of Rahman.
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