Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death for crimes against humanity

A special court has sentenced Bangladesh’s deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death for crimes against humanity linked to last year’s mass uprising that killed hundreds and ended her 15-year rule.

The court also sentenced former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan to death in the case, while a third suspect – a former police chief – was sentenced to five years in prison after becoming a prosecution witness against Hasina and pleading guilty.

Hasina and Khan were charged with crimes against humanity for the murder of hundreds of people during a student-led uprising in July and August 2024. In a February report, the United Nations said up to 1,400 people may have been killed in the violence, while the country’s health adviser under the interim government said more than 800 people had been killed and around 14,000 injured.

The verdict in the court in the capital, Dhaka, was broadcast live on Monday.

The caretaker government stepped up security ahead of the verdict, with border guards and paramilitary police deployed in Dhaka and many other parts of the country. CBS News’ British partner network BBC News said security forces deployed tear gas amid unrest that followed the sentencing announcement on the streets of Dhaka on Monday.

Hasina’s Awami League party called for a nationwide shutdown to protest the verdict. Hasina and Khan, who were in exile in Indiawere tried in absentia.

Hasina and her party called the court a “kangaroo court” and denounced the state’s appointment of a lawyer to represent her.

Last week, the court had set Monday to deliver its verdict, as reports of crude bomb blasts and arson led to the disruption of classes and transport across the country after the “lockdown” demanded by Hasina’s party.

Ahead of the court’s ruling on Monday, the former ruling party again called for a shutdown, with Hasina in an audio message urging her supporters not to be “nervous” about the verdict.

The verdict came after local media reported more crude bomb explosions in Dhaka on Sunday, including one outside the house of a councilor, equivalent to a minister.

Meanwhile, Dhaka police chief Sheikh Mohammad Sazzat Ali ordered to “shoot on sight” if anyone tried to set fire to vehicles or throw crude bombs. The directive comes as nearly 50 arson attacks, mostly targeting vehicles, and dozens of crude bomb explosions have been reported across the country over the past week. Two people were killed in the arson attacks, local media reported.

Supreme Court authorities, in a letter to the Army headquarters on Sunday, requested deployment of soldiers around the court premises before the verdict.

Hasina was chased out on August 5 last year and fled to India. Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus took over as head of an interim government three days after his fall. Yunus vowed to punish Hasina and banned the activities of her party, the Awami League.

Yunus said his caretaker government would hold the next elections in February and Hasina’s party would not have the chance to contest the elections.

Shireen Huq, a Dhaka-based human rights activist who works with those injured in the unrest, told the BBC on Monday that Hasina’s “harsh punishment” would offer little comfort to the families of those killed and maimed during last summer’s crackdown on protesters.

“They will never be able to forgive him,” she told the BBC, adding that many people’s anger against Hasina’s political party “has not subsided.”

“Neither she nor the party has apologized or shown any remorse for the murder of hundreds of people,” Huq said. “It is difficult for the party to be accepted by the majority of citizens of this country.”