Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been handed a death sentence by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) on charges of committing crimes against humanity.
The decision comes after months of proceedings focused on her government’s response to a student-driven protest movement last year.
Immediately after the judgement, Hasina stated that she had not been given a fair chance to defend herself during the trial.
The tribunal found her responsible for ordering a violent crackdown on the protests. Former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and ex–police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun were also convicted.
Al-Mamun, the only one of the three present in court, had previously confessed in July and cooperated with the prosecution as a state witness.
Security conditions in Dhaka were dramatically tightened ahead of the verdict. Several crude bomb blasts were reported in the capital on Sunday. Although no injuries were recorded, the explosions heightened the unrest that had already taken hold of the city.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police issued shoot-at-sight orders targeting individuals involved in arson, bombings, or attacks on civilians and security personnel. Army units, Border Guard Bangladesh, and riot police were deployed across key areas.
With tensions rising, the dissolved Awami League called for a two-day shutdown.
Sajeeb Wazed, Hasina’s son and adviser, warned that Awami League supporters would attempt to obstruct the national election scheduled for February if the party’s ban remained in place.
Hasina has been living in exile in India since August 2024 after leaving Bangladesh amid intensifying political pressure.
As the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Hasina first emerged as a major political figure in the 1980s while opposing military rule. She took office in 1996 for the first time. Her second stretch in power, beginning in 2009, drew significant criticism as allegations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and suppression of dissent mounted, leading to claims that her administration had strayed from democratic principles.
Regarding the deaths during last year’s anti-government protests, Hasina described them as “tragic” and denied authorising security forces to fire on demonstrators before she departed the country.
Her personal history has long been intertwined with Bangladesh’s political upheavals.
Her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – the country’s founding leader – was assassinated along with most of their family members in 1975. Hasina and her sister survived only because they were abroad. Since returning to political life in 1981, she has faced at least 19 assassination attempts.