But she is in exile in India, street demonstrations in Dacca
Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity over the repression of student protests in July 2024 that killed 1,400 people and led to her ouster from power. For the country’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, it is a “historic verdict”. For the former prime minister, now in exile in India, the sentence and sentence were “partial and politically motivated”.
Bangladesh has already asked India for his extradition. However, it is unlikely that the country led by Narendra Modi will grant it. A move that could exacerbate the already strong tensions between the two countries. Hasina was tried by the International Criminal Court (ICT) in Dhaka and the conviction was widely expected. During her 15-year rule the leader had often used a heavy hand to silence the opposition. The protests last year began to demand the abolition of quotas reserved for relatives of Revolutionary War veterans in government jobs. But the protests soon turned into an anti-government movement, until Hasina was forced to flee, and Yunus took office as head of an interim government. A UN report documented 1,400 deaths in the protests, with point-blank shootings, arbitrary arrests and torture.
It is no coincidence that together with Hasina (convicted of incitement, order to kill and inaction in preventing the atrocities), former Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was also sentenced to death. Another co-defendant, former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, received a five-year sentence. Security measures are impressive in Dhaka. A demonstration of jubilation welcomed the sentence, and hundreds of people attempted to attack the house of the woman’s father – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh – now transformed into a museum, to demolish it, clashing with the police. Yunus called for calm, warning against any “attempt to violate public order”. The UN, while recognizing that the sentence marks “an important moment for the victims”, spoke out against capital punishment.
