Bangladesh’s deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was on Monday sentenced to death in absentia by a special tribunal for “crimes against humanity” committed during the widespread protests against her government in July last year.
Hasina, who has been living in India since her government was toppled on August 5 last year, was sentenced by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD).
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 has ordered the execution by hanging of Sheikh Hasina and former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal after finding them guilty of genocide committed during the July-August 2024 violence in a case involving crimes against humanity.
At the same time, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun who turned state witness and testified before the tribunal against the former Prime Minister and Home Minister has been sentenced to five years in prison after admitting his involvement.
On Monday, the three-member tribunal, led by Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Mozumder, read the summary of the 453-page verdict, which consists of six sections, in the absence of Sheikh Hasina and Asaduzzaman Khan.
The other members of the tribunal are Justice Md. Shafiul Alam Mahmood and Md. Mohitul Haque Enam Chowdhury.
Earlier, prosecutor Tajul Islam had appealed for the highest punishment for Sheikh Hasina in this case.
Hasina, 78, was earlier declared a fugitive by the court.
Reading out the judgment before a heavily guarded courtroom in Dhaka, the tribunal said the prosecution had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Hasina was behind the deadly crackdown on student-led protests between July 15 and August 15 last year.
A UN rights office report had earlier estimated that up to 1,400 people were killed during the month-long agitation, known as the July Uprising.
Hasina was handed the death penalty for ordering the use of deadly force against unarmed protesters, making inflammatory statements and authorising operations that led to the killing of several students in Dhaka and surrounding areas.
Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Hasina has condemned the Dhaka court verdict as “biased and politically motivated”.
The death penalty is the interim government’s way of “nullifying [her party] the Awami League as a political force”, she said in a five-page statement released after the verdict.
“I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,” she said, adding that she had challenged the interim government to bring these charges before the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
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Leaders and activists from various political and social organisations gathered outside the International Crimes Tribunal as the verdict in the case against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was being read out.
A group of students also gathered in the TSC area of Dhaka University. They were seen chanting slogans demanding the execution of Sheikh Hasina.
