🔗 Share this article

The country's previous leader has been handed capital punishment for crimes against humanity due to her severe measures on student-led protests which led to her removal from power.

Sheikh Hasina was found guilty of allowing lethal force to be used against protesters, with approximately 1,400 individuals were killed during the turmoil in the previous year.

Hasina was tried without her presence by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh, as she resides in exile in India after being removed from office in July 2024.

Legal authorities charged her of being the mastermind of numerous deaths during the protests. She has refuted the entire case, calling the trial as "unfair and agenda-driven".

The decision signifies a critical juncture for Bangladesh, as the protests revealed fury over extended periods of oppression. Families of those killed and harmed had called for strict sentences.

Responding to the decision in a comprehensive declaration, she expressed the capital punishment was the interim government's way of "eradicating the Awami League" as a governing body and that she was proud of her leadership's history on civil liberties.

"I do not fear to face my accusers in a just legal forum where the proof can be evaluated and tested fairly."

Bangladesh's main city, Dhaka, where the legal proceedings occurred, was under increased safeguards prior to the ruling on Monday, with several of her detractors holding a protest and applauding as the judgment was announced.

Dhaka experienced a notable rise in disturbances, with dozens of bombs exploded and buses set on fire in the period preceding the verdict.

A minimum of one detonation was recorded in Dhaka on Monday morning, with no casualties reported, area law enforcement officer the authorities' representative told press agencies.

The protest movement led by students in the previous year began with demands to abolish public sector reservation policies but morphed into a broader opposition campaign.

International human rights monitors declared in an analysis in February that the around 1,400 fatalities could constitute "violations of human dignity".

The report documented the firing at close quarters of certain demonstrators, the purposeful disabling of further participants, unwarranted detentions and torture.

Unauthorized recordings of a call made by the former leader confirmed by investigative sources earlier this year implied she had authorized the use of "fatal instruments" in July 2024. The sound file was broadcast in court during the legal process.

Ahead of the verdict, kin of those fatally injured in the unrest informed press outlets they wanted strict consequences for Hasina.

Ramjan Ali, whose sibling was killed in July 2024, said he wanted "severe penalty" for her and co-accused who have "engaged in retaliatory actions and exploited their positions".

Lucky Akther, whose husband was killed near Dhaka in August 2024, said she wanted the former leader's punishment to be "implemented before the election".

"Exclusively thereafter the relatives of the deceased [in the protests] will obtain solace in their minds."

After her departure, an interim government headed by economic expert Muhammad Yunus has taken charge. A general election is planned for February 2026.

However, the Hasina's political party, her political faction, was outlawed by Bangladesh's interim government in May.

The former leader cautioned in the previous month that if the her faction's nominees were prohibited from running in the upcoming election, millions would boycott the vote.

The judgment creates a international dilemma for the neighboring countries. The Bangladesh government has asked her repatriation but to date India has expressed no readiness to agree.

The legal representative assigned to her her legal counsel said he was "sad [and wishes] the outcome had varied".

"I am unable to challenge because my defendants are not present; for that reason I am sad," he stated further.

The previous week, her legal team said they had filed an urgent appeal to the UN raising significant due process and judicial process problems at the ICT.

The former leader faced trial alongside her previous domestic affairs official and police chief.

Although the punishment grants partial finality to families of killed in the protests, it may have minimal effect on calming the country's political divisions.

"The fury directed at the former leader and the Awami League has not diminished," a human rights advocate from the capital informed news organizations. "The leader and her faction has said sorry or shown any remorse for the killings of hundreds of people."

The advocate declared "This complicates matters for the faction to gain approval by a bulk of the population in this country."

The campaigner further stated that the punishment was not closure for the relatives of those fatally and non-fatally harmed.

"We assist multiple individuals who lost their limbs forever, they are currently without limbs, as a result of the harsh measures. They will never be able to forgive her."

A journalist, a commentator on the nation's politics, said the "very nature of the conviction could make it particularly hard" for her party to become a regular participant of the nation's political landscape again.

This might transform if "there is some kind of apology and a separation from Sheikh Hasina and the former hierarchy," he said.