November 17, (THEWILL) — Bangladesh ousted Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, has been sentenced to death in abstentia by a court in Dhaka for crimes against humanity.
The Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal handed the verdict on Monday, after it found the 78-year-old fugitive politician, guilty of “mastermind and principal architect” behind the 2024 suppression of mass demonstrations, in which some 1,400 people were killed.
Hasina had pleaded not guilty to the charges and alleged the tribunal was a “politically motivated charade”.
Ruling on Monday, a three-judge bench of the tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes, including incitement, orders to kill, and inaction to prevent atrocities, carried out as she oversaw a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year.
Reading the verdict to the court, Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder said the “accused prime minister committed crimes against humanity by her order to use drones, helicopters and lethal weapons”.
The court also issued a separate sentence of imprisonment till death on three other counts, including “incitement against protesters, issuing order to kill them and failure to prevent the atrocities and take punitive action against the perpetrators.”
The 2024 uprising ended Hasina’s 15-year “authoritarian” rule marked by allegations of suppression of dissent, and extrajudicial detentions and killings. She has been in exile in India since losing power and has not been seen in public or online.
Hasina’s now-banned Awami League party has called the Dhaka tribunal a “kangaroo court” and has urged supporters to protest the ruling.
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