Former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death for crimes against humanity

The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh's domestic war crimes court, sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to death for ordering a deadly crackdown on the 2024 student-led uprising.

Judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder said Hasina was "found guilty on three counts", including incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities.

"We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence — that is, sentence of death," Mozumder said.

The announcement was met by cheering and clapping in the court.

Sheikh Hasina found guilty

Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been found guilty of crimes against humanity.

Bangladesh's three-member special crimes tribunal gave its verdict in the case against Hasina on Monday afternoon. 

The judgement was given in absentia for Hasina, who the court has declared a fugitive.

It was the tribunal's first verdict on the atrocities committed during the violent repression of mass protests in July and August 2024.

Only one of the three accused is in court

As verdict is delivered against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and two other former government officials charged with crimes against humanity, only one is actually in court. 

That's former police inspector general Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. He has pleaded guilty and also became a state witness. 

Sheikh Hasina fled to India after she was deposed and refused to return for the trial. 

Former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has gone into hiding, with rumors that he also fled to India. 

Hasina turned Bangladesh into a one-party state

Sheikh Hasina was accused of steadily consolidating power during her 15-year-rule from 2009 to 2024.

Her time is power was marked by increasing political arrests and disappearances, suppression of dissent and the curtailing of freedom of speech.

The January 2024 election won by Hasina and her Awami League was boycotted by Bangladesh's other main party, the BNP, after thousands of opposition supporters and politicians were been arrested. 

Many democracy observers accuse Hasina of effectively turning Bangladesh into a one-party state.

Hasina's Awami League calls for national shutdown

Hasina's now-banned party, the Awami League, has called for a nationwide shutdown on Monday.

Both Hasina and the Awami League have called the special tribunal a "kangaroo court" and denounced the appointment of a lawyer by the state to represent her.

The interim government banned the Awami League in May under the anti-terrorism act. 

The Electoral Commission has since removed the party from the official list of registered political parties. 

This means the Awami League will be unable to run in elections scheduled for February 2026. 

Until its ban, the Awami League had been one of Bangladesh's main parties since independence from Pakistan in 1976. 

Reports of explosions in Dhaka

Media reported explosions of crude bombs in Dhaka. 

This includes one in front of the house of an adviser, equivalent to a Cabinet minister, on Sunday.

Other crude bombs have been set off across Dhaka, and elsewhere in Bangladesh over the past week.

These are mainly petrol bombs thrown at everything from buildings linked to the government of interim leader Muhammad Yunus to buses and Christian sites.