Bangladesh's Deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed Sentenced to Capital Punishment

The country's previous leader has been sentenced to death for atrocities over her severe measures on student-led protests which resulted in her ousting.

The court convicted Sheikh Hasina of permitting fatal actions to be used against activists, among whom around 1,400 people were killed during the turmoil last year.

The trial proceeded in absentia by the special international tribunal in Bangladesh, as she resides in exile in India after being removed from office in July 2024.

The prosecution alleged of being behind hundreds of killings during the protests. The former leader rejected the entire case, calling the trial as "biased and politically motivated".

This judgment represents a decisive point for Bangladesh, as the protests unleashed anger over extended periods of oppression. Families of those killed and harmed had called for tough penalties.

Reacting to the verdict in a five-page statement, she expressed the capital punishment was the caretaker administration's way of "eradicating the Awami League" as a political force and that she was satisfied of her leadership's history on human rights.

"I do not fear to meet my challengers in a just legal forum where the proof can be evaluated and tested fairly."

Bangladesh's main city, Dhaka, where the legal proceedings occurred, was under tightened security prior to the verdict on Monday, with many of Hasina's critics staging a rally and celebrating as the judgment was announced.

The city has seen a sudden increase in unrest, with multiple explosives detonated and public transport vehicles burned in the days leading up to the verdict.

A minimum of one detonation was reported in Dhaka on Monday morning, with no victims identified, regional security representative the police spokesperson stated to news organizations.

The youth-driven revolt during 2024 commenced through demands to abolish public sector reservation policies but morphed into a wider anti-government movement.

United Nations rights examiners declared in an analysis in February that the around 1,400 fatalities could amount to "crimes against humanity".

The paper detailed the shooting at point-blank range of a number of activists, the deliberate maiming of others, arbitrary arrests and mistreatment.

Disclosed sound files of a telephone conversation involving Hasina authenticated by investigative sources in previous months suggested she had sanctioned the use of "deadly arms" in July 2024. The sound file was broadcast in court during the trial.

Prior to the ruling, family members of those fatally injured in the unrest told press outlets they wanted strict consequences for Hasina.

Ramjan Ali, whose brother was shot dead in July 2024, said he wanted "strict sentence" for her and co-accused who have "engaged in retaliatory actions and abused their power".

Another relative, whose partner was fatally injured near Dhaka in August 2024, said she wanted the former leader's punishment to be "executed before the election".

"Only then the families of those killed [in the protests] will obtain solace in their hearts."

After her departure, an caretaker administration under the guidance of economic expert Muhammad Yunus has assumed control. A general election is scheduled for February 2026.

Nevertheless, the Awami League, her political faction, was banned by Bangladesh's caretaker administration in May.

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

The verdict now poses a diplomatic challenge for India and Bangladesh. Dhaka has formally requested her repatriation but until now India has shown no willingness to agree.

Hasina's state-appointed lawyer her legal counsel said he was "unhappy and desiring the outcome had varied".

"I even cannot appeal because my clients are absent; for that reason I am sad," he continued.

Last week, Hasina's lawyers said they had filed an urgent appeal to the UN raising major judicial fairness and judicial process problems at the ICT.

Legal proceedings involved Hasina together with her ex-interior minister and security forces head.

While the sentence provides certain resolution to families of killed in the protests, it may have minimal effect on calming the nation's partisan rifts.

"The resentment towards Hasina and the Awami League has not decreased," a Dhaka-based rights activist informed news organizations. "The leader and her faction has expressed regret or shown any remorse for the deaths of numerous individuals."

She said "This creates challenges for the faction to gain approval by a majority of people in this country."

The campaigner further stated that the sentence was not closure for the relatives of those fatally and non-fatally harmed.

"We work with several people who underwent irreversible limb loss, they are currently without limbs, due to the crackdown. They will never be able to forgive her."

An analyst, an observer of Bangladeshi affairs, said the "very nature of the conviction could make it particularly hard" for Awami League to become a standard element of Bangladeshi politics again.

This could alter if "there is some kind of apology and a distancing from the former leader and the previous administration," he said.