Dhaka – Deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia on Monday for crimes committed during the violent suppression of last year’s mass uprising. The protests ousted her government and ended her 15-year rule.
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) announced her conviction for crimes against humanity, awarding the punishment in a crowded courtroom attended by families of the victims of the last year’s uprising.
According to the indictment, Hasina ordered shooting at demonstrators, who had begun the protests against government job quota in July 2024 that eventually turned to a one-point demand of her ouster.
The 78-year-old leader was found liable for three counts of crimes against humanity for her role in the killing of protesters. According to the United Nations estimates some 1,400 people died during the protests that was ended in August 5, 2024 with the fall of her regime.
Hasina has been exiled to India, where she fled after her ouster.
It is the first death penalty handed to a former head of government in Bangladesh, a country with a tumultuous political history. Two of its presidents were assassinated. Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was among them and assassinated by a group of disgruntled army officers in 1975.
The ICT also sentenced Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the former home minister of Hasina’s cabinet, to death over crimes against humanity. He was convicted for four counts of crimes committed during the uprising. Kamal is also living in India.
Former police chief Abdullah Al Mamun, who has been in custody, was given a five-year prison term after testifying as key witness against Hasina and Khan in the case.
The panel of three judges decided on a single sentence for Hasina, the “sentence of death,” Golam Murtoza Majumder, the chairman of the panel, announced in a live broadcast on state-run Bangladesh Television.
The court ordered the confiscation of assets owned by Hasina and Kamal, to go towards the welfare of the victims of atrocities and their families. The court also ordered sending the ruling to all the district administrations to take actions to this end.
Hasina did not appoint any lawyer to defend her in the court. The state-appointed counsel, Amir Hossain, said he was shocked at the verdict as his client was sentenced to death. He said he has no way to challenge the verdict in the higher court, since the client is absconding. The convict must surrender before the court if she wants to file an appeal in 30 days, he said according to the law.
Attorney General Mohammad Asaduzaman told reporters that justice had been done. “It was a historic verdict that appeases the families of those who lost their dear ones during the protests,” he said.
The tribunal’s chief prosecutor Tajul Islam said Hasina’s death sentence was “not a revenge for any past events.” It was a milestone verdict in the history of Bangladesh. “This is the nation’s quest for justice,” he said.
Hasina’s Awami League party, which is banned by the interim administration in May this year, announced a two-day protest styled nationwide lockdown to protest what it says a politically motivated trial of the party chief.
Sporadic incidents of crude bomb attacks and arson on vehicles were reported from different parts of the country after the banned party announced the protests.
In response, the government deployed additional security forces to ensure safety. In Dhaka alone, some 15,000 policemen were deployed to maintain order on the verdict day.
