Bangladesh’s former prime minister has been sentenced to loss of life for crimes towards humanity over her crackdown on student-led protests which led to her ousting.
Sheikh Hasina was discovered responsible of permitting deadly power for use towards protesters, 1,400 of whom died in the course of the unrest final yr.
Hasina was tried in absentia by the Worldwide Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh, having been exiled in India since she was pressured from energy in July 2024.
Prosecutors accused her of being behind lots of of killings in the course of the protests. Hasina has denied all expenses, calling the trial “biased and politically motivated”.
The decision marks a pivotal second for Bangladesh, because the protests unleashed anger over years of repression. Households of these killed and injured had known as for powerful penalties.
Reacting to the decision in a five-page assertion, Hasina stated the loss of life penalty was the interim authorities’s method of “nullifying [her party] the Awami League as a political power” and that she was pleased with her authorities’s file on human rights.
“I’m not afraid to face my accusers in a correct tribunal the place the proof may be weighed and examined pretty.”
The capital, Dhaka, the place the tribunal befell, was beneath tightened safety forward of the decision on Monday, with lots of Hasina’s critics staging a rally and cheering as the decision was learn.
The town has seen a latest spike in unrest, with dozens of bombs exploded and buses set on hearth within the days main as much as the decision.
At the least one bomb explosion was reported in Dhaka on Monday morning, with no casualties reported, native police official Jisanul Haque advised the BBC.
The scholar-led rebellion final yr began with calls for to abolish authorities job quotas however morphed right into a wider anti-government motion.
UN human rights investigators stated in a report in February that the roughly 1,400 deaths might quantity to “crimes towards humanity”.
The report documented the taking pictures at point-blank vary of some protesters, the deliberate maiming of others, arbitrary arrests and torture.
Leaked audio of one in every of Hasina’s cellphone calls verified by BBC Eye earlier this yr instructed she had authorised using “deadly weapons” in July 2024. The audio was performed in courtroom in the course of the trial.
Forward of the decision, members of the family of these killed in the course of the protests advised the BBC they needed Hasina to be punished severely.
Ramjan Ali, whose brother was shot lifeless in July 2024, stated he needed “exemplary punishment” for Hasina and others who’ve “dedicated acts of vengeance and abused their energy”.
Fortunate Akther, whose husband was killed close to Dhaka in August 2024, stated she needed Hasina’s sentence to be “carried out earlier than the election”.
“Solely then the households of these killed [in the protests] will discover peace of their hearts.”
Since Hasina’s ousting, an interim authorities led by economist Muhammad Yunus has taken cost. A parliamentary election is scheduled for February 2026.
Nonetheless, the Awami League, Hasina’s political celebration, was banned by Bangladesh’s interim authorities in Could.
Hasina warned final month that if the celebration’s candidates had been banned from standing within the upcoming election, hundreds of thousands would boycott the vote.
The decision now poses a diplomatic problem for India and Bangladesh. Dhaka has formally requested her extradition however thus far India has proven no willingness to conform.
Hasina’s state-appointed lawyer Mohammad Amir Hossain stated he was “unhappy [and wishes] the decision had been totally different”.
“I even can’t attraction as a result of my shoppers are absent; that is why I’m unhappy,” he added.
Final week, Hasina’s attorneys stated that they had filed an pressing attraction to the UN elevating critical honest trial and due course of points on the ICT.
Hasina was tried alongside her former dwelling minister and police chief.
Whereas the sentence affords some closure to households of killed within the protests, it might do little to appease the nation’s political divisions.
“The anger towards Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League has not subsided,” Shireen Huq, a Dhaka-based rights activists advised the BBC. “Neither she nor the celebration has apologised or proven any regret for the killings of lots of of individuals.”
She stated “It makes it troublesome for the celebration to be accepted by a majority of individuals on this nation.”
Ms Huq added that the punishment was not closure for the households of these killed and injured.
“We work with a number of individuals who misplaced their limbs eternally, they’re amputees now, as a result of crackdown. They’ll by no means be capable of forgive her.”
David Bergman, a journalist and a long-time Bangladesh watcher, stated the “very nature of the conviction might make it much more troublesome” for Awami League to develop into a standard characteristic of Bangladeshi politics once more.
This will change if “there’s some sort of apology and a distancing from Sheikh Hasina and the outdated management”, he stated.
