A special tribunal sentenced Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death on charges of crimes against humanity involving last year’s mass uprising that killed hundreds of people and ended her 15-year rule.
The tribunal also sentenced former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan to death in the case while a third suspect — a former police chief — was sentenced to five years in prison as he became a state witness against Hasina and pleaded guilty.
Hasina and Khan faced the charges of crimes against humanity over the killing of hundreds of people during a student-led uprising in July and August of 2024. The United Nations in a February report said up to 1,400 may have been killed in the violence, while the country’s health adviser under the interim government said more than 800 people were killed and about 14,000 were injured.
The deliberation of the verdict from the tribunal in the capital, Dhaka, was broadcast live on Monday.
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ruled for 15 years / Credit: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty Images
The interim government beefed up security ahead of the verdict, with paramilitary border guards and police deployed in Dhaka and many other parts of the country. CBS News’ British partner network BBC News said security forces had deployed tear gas amid unrest following the announcement of the sentencing on the streets of Dhaka on Monday.
Hasina’s Awami League party has called for a nationwide shutdown to protest the verdict. Hasina and Khan, who have been in exile in India, were tried in absentia.
Both Hasina and her party have called the tribunal a “kangaroo court” and denounced the appointment of a lawyer by the state to represent her.
The tribunal last week had fixed Monday for delivering the verdict as reports of explosions of crude bombs and arson led to the disruption of classes and transportation across the country after the “lockdown” called for by Hasina’s party.
Before the tribunal’s ruling Monday, the former ruling party called for the shutdown again, with Hasina in an audio message urging her supporters not to be “nervous” about the verdict.
The verdict came after local media reported new explosions of crude bombs in Dhaka, including one in front of the house of an adviser, equivalent to a Cabinet minister, on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Dhaka’s police chief Sheikh Mohammad Sazzat Ali issued a “shoot-on-sight” order if anyone attempts to torch vehicles or hurl crude bombs. The directive came as nearly 50 arson attacks, mostly targeting vehicles, and dozens of explosions of crude bombs have been reported nationwide over the past week. Two people were killed in the arson attacks, local media reported.
Authorities at the Supreme Court, in a letter to army headquarters on Sunday, requested the deployment of soldiers around the tribunal premises ahead of the verdict.
Protesters block the Dhanmondi 2 area during an anti-government protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Aug. 4, 2024. / Credit: Getty
Hasina was ousted on Aug. 5 last year and fled to India. Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of an interim government three days after her fall. Yunus vowed to punish Hasina and banned the activities of her Awami League party.
Yunus said his interim government would hold the next elections in February, and that Hasina’s party would not get a chance to contest the race.
Dhaka-based human rights activist Shireen Huq, who works with people injured during the unrest, told the BBC on Monday that the “harsh punishment” for Hasina would offer little solace for the families of people killed and maimed during last summer’s crackdown on protesters.
“They will never be able to forgive her,” she told the BBC, adding that many people’s anger at Hasina’s political party also had “not subsided.”
“Neither she nor the party has apologized or shown any remorse for the killings of hundreds of people,” Huq said. “It makes it difficult for the party to be accepted by a majority of people in this country.”
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