Bangladesh's ousted Prime Minister Hasina sentenced to death for student uprising lethal crackdown

Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death Monday for her lethal crackdown on a student uprising last year, after which she was overthrown and fled to India.

The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh's domestic war crimes court in the capital of Dhaka, delivered the verdict after a months-long trial, and amid tight security, Reuters reported.

Hasina, who was absent from the trial since she fled to India in August 2024, received a life sentence for criminal charges of crimes against humanity and a death sentence for the killing of several people during the uprising.

There has not been such a dramatic legal action against a former Bangladeshi leader in decades, and it comes before parliamentary elections are expected to be held in early February. Hasina's Awami League party has been prevented from running in the elections.

Monday's verdict can be appealed to the Supreme Court, but Hasina's son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, told Reuters on Sunday that they would not appeal unless a democratically elected government took office with the Awami League’s participation.

Prosecutors argued during the trial that they had uncovered evidence of Hasina's direct command to use lethal force to suppress a student-led uprising in July and August 2024.

A United Nations report found that up to 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests between July 15 and August 5, 2024, with thousands more injured, mostly by gunfire from security forces. It was the worst violence the country had experienced since its 1971 war of independence.

Hasina, 78, was represented in the trial by a state-appointed defense counsel who told the court that the charges against her were baseless and asked for her acquittal.

Ahead of the verdict, there were at least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles torched across the country over the past few days, which resulted in no casualties.

Hasina told Reuters last month regarding the trial, "These proceedings are a politically motivated charade. They have been brought by kangaroo courts, with guilty verdicts a foregone conclusion. They are presided over by an unelected government which consists of my political opponents."

She added that she was denied adequate notice of the hearings and any meaningful opportunity to build a defense, noting that she was not personally involved in the use of lethal force or other alleged crimes.

Bangladesh has been governed by an interim administration headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus since Hasina fled last year.