🔗 Share this article

Bangladesh's former prime minister has been handed capital punishment for human rights violations due to her severe measures on protests led by students which caused her removal from power.

Hasina was declared culpable of permitting fatal actions to be used against activists, with approximately 1,400 individuals were killed during the turmoil during 2024.

Hasina was tried while she was absent by the special international tribunal in Bangladesh, having been exiled in India after being removed from office in July 2024.

Legal authorities charged her of being the mastermind of hundreds of killings during the protests. Hasina has denied the entire case, describing the process as "prejudiced and driven by politics".

The decision signifies a decisive point for Bangladesh, as the protests revealed fury over long-standing suppression. Families of those killed and harmed had called for severe punishments.

Reacting to the verdict in a comprehensive declaration, she expressed the execution sentence was the temporary leadership's way of "eliminating her political faction" as a electoral entity and that she was content of her government's record on individual freedoms.

"I have no trepidation to confront those accusing me in a proper tribunal where the facts can be assessed and reviewed impartially."

The nation's capital, Dhaka, where the court convened, was under enhanced protection prior to the decision on Monday, with many of Hasina's critics staging a rally and cheering as the judgment was announced.

Dhaka experienced a recent spike in disturbances, with numerous incendiary devices set off and coaches ignited in the time before the verdict.

At least one bomb explosion was recorded in Dhaka on Monday morning, with no victims identified, regional security representative Jisanul Haque informed news organizations.

The protest movement led by students in the previous year started with requests to remove government job quotas but transformed into a wider anti-government movement.

United Nations rights examiners declared in an analysis in February that the nearly 1,400 casualties could constitute "crimes against humanity".

The report documented the shooting at point-blank range of some protesters, the intentional injuring of additional individuals, unwarranted detentions and mistreatment.

Unauthorized recordings of one of Hasina's phone calls confirmed by investigative sources during the current year implied she had authorized the use of "fatal instruments" in July 2024. The sound file was broadcast in court during the trial.

Before the decision, family members of those who died in the demonstrations stated to news agencies they wanted the former leader to face strict penalties.

One relative, whose sibling was killed in July 2024, said he wanted "exemplary punishment" for Hasina and others who have "committed acts of vengeance and abused their power".

A different family member, whose spouse died near Dhaka in August 2024, said she wanted the former leader's punishment to be "implemented before the election".

"Exclusively thereafter the kin of victims [in the protests] will find peace in their minds."

Since Hasina's ousting, an interim government under the guidance of economic expert Muhammad Yunus has assumed power. A national vote is set for February 2026.

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

She alerted in the previous month that if the party's candidates were banned from standing in the forthcoming vote, numerous would avoid the election.

The judgment creates a foreign relations issue for India and Bangladesh. Authorities have sought her extradition but so far India has expressed no readiness to agree.

Her officially designated attorney Mohammad Amir Hossain said he was "unhappy and desiring the decision had been otherwise".

"I cannot even contest because my defendants are not present; which is why I am disappointed," he added.

Last week, the defense attorneys said they had submitted an immediate petition to the UN pointing out serious fair trial and legal procedure concerns at the ICT.

Hasina was tried alongside her former home minister and top law enforcement officer.

Although the punishment grants partial finality to families of killed in the protests, it may do little to soothe the nation's partisan rifts.

"The fury directed at Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League has not subsided," a human rights advocate from the capital stated to press agencies. "Both she and the organization has expressed regret or shown any remorse for the fatalities of countless citizens."

She said "This complicates matters for the party to be accepted by a bulk of the population in this nation."

The activist added that the sentence was not finality for the families of those fatally and non-fatally harmed.

"We work with several people who underwent irreversible limb loss, they are currently without limbs, because of the suppression. They cannot pardon her."

A journalist, an observer of Bangladeshi affairs, said the "very nature of the conviction could make it even more difficult" for Awami League to become a normal feature of Bangladeshi politics again.

This could alter if "there is some kind of apology and a separation from the former leader and the old leadership," he stated.