Hasina, 78, who is outside Bangladesh, is believed to be responsible for the brutal crackdown on student protests in July 2024. She was tried in absentia.
It was the prime minister who gave the order to disperse the students by the police, which became the reason for her removal from power, the agency notes.
In addition to Hasina, the sentence was read out to two more defendants, the former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal (also the death penalty) and the former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun (he admitted guilt, acted as a witness and received five years in prison).
Kamal is on the run, and Mamun is in custody.
The Associated Press writes that Hasina and Kamal are in India, which refuses to extradite them to Bangladesh. Because of this, the agency believes it is unlikely that they will ever be sent to prison or executed.
The media clarifies that Hasina was convicted on five counts, including crimes against humanity, inflammatory speech, and ordering the killing of student protesters using helicopters and drones.
Context
In January 2024, Hasina won elections boycotted by opposition members for the fourth time in a row. After this, mass protests with deaths broke out in the country several times.
In June, Bangladesh reinstated its quota system for government jobs, which had been abolished in 2018, leading to new mass protests. During clashes with police more than 100 people died. At the end of July, most of the quotas were canceled.
In August, the situation worsened, protestors (primarily students) demanded Hasina's resignation, clashes between protesters and police Dozens of people on both sides were killed, and the number of wounded was in the hundreds. A wave of violence swept through several cities, including the capital.
Hasina called the protesters “terrorists” who, according to her, allegedly wanted to destabilize the country.
On August 5, Hasina resigned and went on the run. According to media reports, she flew to India by helicopter.
