Former Bangladesh PM Hasina Wajid sentenced to death in students crackdown case 

Dhaka (Web Desk): A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death, concluding a protracted trial that determined she had ordered a brutal response to last year’s student-led protests.

The decision arrives just months before parliamentary elections scheduled for early February, from which her Awami League has already been excluded — a move that has raised concerns about further instability as the vote approaches.

The judgment was issued by the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh’s domestic war-crimes court based in Dhaka, which delivered the verdict under tight security.

Hasina was not in the courtroom, having taken refuge in India after leaving Bangladesh in August 2024. Her conviction can still be challenged before the Supreme Court.

Even so, her son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, said in an interview with Reuters on the eve of the ruling that the family would refrain from appealing unless a freely elected government is formed with the Awami League allowed to take part.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that their investigation had uncovered evidence showing Hasina directly instructed security forces to use deadly force to break the student uprising that erupted in July and continued into early August 2024.

A United Nations (UN) report estimates that as many as 1,400 people may have died between July 15 and August 5, 2024, with thousands more injured — most by gunfire from state forces — marking the bloodiest period Bangladesh has seen since the 1971 liberation war.

Hasina was defended by a court-appointed lawyer who dismissed the allegations as unfounded and pleaded for her acquittal. In the days prior to the verdict,

She rejected both the charges and the trial process itself, insisting the judgment had been predetermined.

Tension has been high across the country ahead of the ruling. In recent days, authorities recorded at least 30 crude bomb blasts and 26 vehicles set ablaze nationwide, though no casualties have been reported.