Hasina guilty of crimes against humanity, sentenced to death

Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was on Monday convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by a tribunal for allegedly ordering a violent crackdown on student-led protests last year.

The judgment, delivered under tight security by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal, held Hasina responsible for unleashing lethal force against unarmed demonstrators during the weeks-long agitation in July-August 2024.

The tribunal ruled that the attacks were “widespread and systematic” and deliberately targeted a civilian movement that had erupted over political rights and governance issues.

“In the atrocities of killing and gravely injuring protesters… accused Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina committed crimes against humanity by her incitement order and also by her failure to take preventive and punitive measures,” the tribunal said in its order. In a separate charge, the tribunal said Hasina ordered the use of drones, helicopters and lethal weapons to suppress the unrest, leading to the death of several students in the capital and surrounding districts.

The tribunal, established by Hasina’s Awami League government in 2010 to prosecute 1971 war crimes, has now ruled against the very leader who once championed its mandate.

In addition to Hasina, the tribunal sentenced Bangladesh’s former Home Minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, to death, while one-time police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun received a prison term.

Reacting sharply to the verdict, Hasina — who remains in India’s asylum — issued a detailed and defiant statement accusing the interim administration of political vendetta and hijacking the tribunal to wipe out the Awami League.

She said the court was rigged, biased and run by an unelected regime that sought to remove Bangladesh’s last elected Prime Minister and nullify the Awami League as a political force.

“Millions of Bangladeshis will not be fooled by this attempt to short-change them of their democratic rights,” she said, calling the sentence a plot by “extremist figures inside the interim government”.

Hasina insisted she never ordered killings and claimed no fair legal defence was allowed — citing the denial of counsel of her choice and intimidation of the judiciary.

The ousted leader maintained that she was ready to face a “proper tribunal” such as the International Criminal Court, saying the current government “fears scrutiny of its own human rights breaches”.

Massive violent protests had marred the then Sheikh Hasina government over a controversial “quota system” that reserved 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971.

On August 5, 2024, Hasina tendered her resignation from the post of the Prime Minister and fled the country after the situation turned extremely volatile in Bangladesh. Since then, Hasina has been residing in India.