Ousted Bangladesh’s PM Hasina sentenced to death for deadly crackdown
Dhaka asks India to extradite Hasina
DHAKA: A Bangladesh court sentenced ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death on Monday, concluding a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.
The ruling comes months ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held in early February.
Hasina’s Awami League party has been barred from contesting and it is feared that Monday’s verdict could stoke fresh unrest ahead of the vote.
The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court located in the capital Dhaka, delivered the guilty verdict amid tight security and in Hasina’s absence after she fled to India in August 2024.
Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against the student-led uprising that ousted her.
She called the guilty verdict and death sentence in her crimes against humanity trial “biased and politically motivated”.
“The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,” Hasina said in a statement issued from hiding in India. “They are biased and politically motivated. “
The verdict can be appealed in the Supreme Court.
But Hasina’s son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, told a foreign media on the eve of the verdict that they would not appeal unless a democratically elected government took office with the Awami League’s participation.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh on Monday demanded India extradite ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, hours after she was sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity.
The former minister’s whereabouts are not known, but Bangladesh says he is also in India.
“We urge the government of India to immediately extradite the two convicts to the Bangladeshi authorities,” Dhaka’s foreign ministry said in a statement, saying it was “an obligatory responsibility for India”.
Bangladesh warned that “granting asylum to these convicts… would be extremely unfriendly and an affront to justice.” Monitoring Desk
