Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on Monday pronounced a death sentence for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after it found her guilty on the charges of crimes against humanity related to the demonstrations in July of last year.
The court also convicted Hasina and her two top aides, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former Inspector General of Police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.
Mamun has been granted a pardon, but the court said that, given the intensity of the crimes, he will be given a “lenient sentence”.
The ousted leader’s sentencing is awaited as the verdict, consisting of 453 pages, is still being read out.
Till now, Hasina has defied the court’s orders by refusing to return to the South Asian nation to face trial. Asaduzzaman is currently a fugitive, while Mamun is in custody and has pleaded guilty.
Notably, Mamun has become a state witness, making him the first accused to do so since the tribunal was established in 2010.
The verdict was being live broadcast by Bangladesh Television (BTV) from the ICT courtroom, where the three-member Tribunal-1, headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Majumder, is delivering the judgment.
The formal charge documents consist of 8,747 pages, including references, seized evidence, and a comprehensive list of victims, reports leading Bangladeshi daily, The Dhaka Tribune.
Prosecutors have charged the accused with five counts, including failure to prevent murder, which constitutes crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law. They are seeking the death penalty if the defendants are found guilty.
Additionally, the prosecutors requested that the tribunal confiscate the assets of the three defendants upon conviction and distribute them to the families of the victims.
Hasina, however, has always denied all the charges.
Meanwhile, Dhaka has been placed under unprecedented security clampdown after Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Sheikh Md Sajjat Ali on Sunday evening issued a ‘shoot-at-sight order’ targeting individuals engaged in arson attacks, cocktail explosions or attempts to harm police and civilians ahead of the ICT verdict.
The two-day strike organised by Hasina’s Awami League for November 16–17 has coincided with an increase in cocktail explosions and arson incidents throughout the capital.
At least 21 leaders and workers from the Awami League, who are currently prohibited from engaging in political activities, were apprehended during special operations throughout Narayanganj in the last 36 hours, reports leading Bangladeshi newspaper, The Daily Star.
Download Nagaland Tribune app on Google Play
Sheikh Hasina slams verdict given by ‘rigged tribunal’, calls it ‘biased’ and ‘politically motivated’
Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday alleged that the verdict announced against her came from a “rigged tribunal” set up and presided over by the unelected interim government led by Muhammad Yunus which lacks a democratic mandate, calling the ruling “biased” and “politically motivated”.
The remarks came after Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) pronounced a death sentence for former Prime Minister after it found her guilty on the charges of crimes against humanity related to the demonstrations in July of last year.
“In their distasteful call for the death penalty, they reveal the brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government to remove Bangladesh’s last elected prime minister, and to nullify the Awami League as a political force. Millions of Bangladeshis toiling under the chaotic, violent and socially-regressive administration of Dr Mohammad Yunus will not be fooled by this attempt to short-change them of their democratic rights. They can see that the trials conducted by the so-called International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) were never intended to achieve justice or provide any genuine insight into the events of July and August 2025. Rather, their purpose was to scapegoat the Awami League and to distract the world’s attention from the failings of Dr Yunus and his ministers,” read a statement issued by former PM Hasina after the controversial ICT verdict.
Slamming the Yunus led interim government, she further said, “Under his aegis, public services have fallen apart. Police have retreated from the country’s crime-ridden streets and judicial fairness has been subverted, with attacks on Awami League adherents going unpunished. Hindus and other religious minorities are assaulted, and women’s rights suppressed. Islamic extremists inside the administration, including figures from Hizb-ut-Tahrir, seek to undermine Bangladesh’s long tradition of secular government. Journalists are locked up and menaced, economic growth has stalled, and Yunus has delayed elections and then banned the country’s most longstanding party (the Awami League) from participating in those elections.
The former PM denied the accusations that have been made against her in the ICT. “I mourn all of the deaths that occurred in July and August of last year, on both sides of the political divide. But neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protestors,” she stressed.
Hasina stated that she has no fear of facing her accusers before a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly, adding that this is why she has repeatedly challenged the interim government to bring these charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
“The interim government will not accept this challenge, because it knows that the ICC would acquit me. The interim government also fears that the ICC would scrutinise its own record of human rights breaches in office,” she asserted
