Sheikh Hasina, former prime minister of Bangladesh, was sentenced to death in absentia for suppressing unrest in 2024

After five months of trials, a court in the capital Dhaka found the “begum besi” guilty of crimes against humanity, specifically for inciting and ordering the murder.

Bangladesh confronts its past. The country’s former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, was sentenced to death in her absence on Monday, November 17, for ordering the deadly repression of demonstrations that led to her fall in the summer of 2024.

After five months of trials, a court in the capital Dhaka ruled that “iron begum” guilty of crimes against humanity, including inciting and ordering murder. “All the elements that constitute crimes against humanity are present”said Judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder when delivering his verdict, “We decided to impose one sentence on him: the death penalty.”

Since her exile in India, Sheikh Hasina, who has always denied the accusations against her, immediately criticized the decision “politically motivated”ordered by “an illegal court, appointed and led by an unelected government and without a democratic mandate”. “This guilty verdict was predetermined”he added in a press release. Bangladeshi authorities took advantage of the decision to resubmit the former leader’s extradition request on Monday. New Delhi has “recording the verdict”without further comment. In July and August 2024, anti-government demonstrations that forced him to leave the country after fifteen years in power, according to the UN, left at least 1,400 people dead, most of them civilians.