A Bangladesh court sentenced ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death on Monday, concluding a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.
The ruling comes months before parliamentary elections to be held in early February.
Hasina’s Awami League party has been banned from participating and there are fears Monday’s verdict could spark fresh unrest ahead of the vote.
The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh’s national war crimes tribunal located in the capital Dhaka, issued the guilty verdict amid tight security and in Hasina’s absence after she fled to India in August 2024.
The verdict can be appealed to the Supreme Court.
But Hasina’s son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, said Reuters on the eve of the verdict that they would not appeal unless a democratically elected government with the participation of the Awami League came to power.
The worst violence since 1971
During the trial, prosecutors told the court they had uncovered evidence that she had directly ordered the use of lethal force to suppress a student-led uprising in July and August 2024.
According to a United Nations report, up to 1,400 people may have been killed during protests between July 15 and August 5, 2024, and thousands more were injured (most by gunfire from security forces) in what was the worst violence in Bangladesh since its 1971 war of independence.
Hasina was represented by a state-appointed defense attorney, who told the court that the charges against her were baseless and called for her acquittal.
Before the verdict, Hasina dismissed the allegations and the fairness of the Court’s proceedings, stating that a guilty verdict was “a foregone conclusion.”
Bangladesh has been tense ahead of the verdict, with at least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles set on fire across the country in recent days. However, there have been no victims.
