Sheikh Hasina Verdict Live Updates: ‘Committed to best interests of people of Bangladesh’, MEA on death penalty to Sheikh Hasina

Following the death penalty verdict against Sheikh Hasina, protests erupted in Bangladesh as many gathered outside deposed premier and Sheikh Hasina’s father’s house.

They wanted to demolish the house of Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the capital.

Security agencies used batons and fired tear gas to disperse protesters.

The MEA has not said anything on Bangladesh’s request for Sheikh Hasina’s extradition. It said New Delhi is “committed to the best of interests of Bangladesh people”, but refrained from any update on what India would do.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday said it is aware of the death penalty verdict given to Sheikh Hasina.

“India has noted the verdict announced by the “International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh” concerning former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. As a close neighbour, India remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country. We will always engage constructively with all stakeholders to that end,” the statement read.

Salahuddin Ahmed, a senior member of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has welcomed the tribunal’s verdict against Sheikh Hasina and two of her former government officials, saying.

Ahmed said the verdict “establishes justice” and sets an example for the future.

Within a few hours after the court’s death penalty verdict against Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has urged India to hand over the ousted PM, reported Al Jazeera.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement calling on India to “immediately hand over” Sheikh Hasina. They have also urged New Delhi to return ex-Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan following their guilty verdicts.

In its statement, the minister said India is bound to comply “as per the existing extradition treaty between the two countries”.

“It would be a grave unfriendly act and a contempt of justice for any other country to grant asylum to these individuals convicted of crimes against humanity,” the statement read.

The interim Bangladesh government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has hailed the death sentence for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and called it a “historic verdict”.

It also warned that any attempt to create chaos and disorder would be dealt with strictly. “We urge people to remain calm, restrained and responsible,” it said, reported Al Jazeera.

The security has been heightened outside the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka, which today sentenced ousted PM Sheikh Hasina to death.

The court concluded a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.

The incumbent Bangladesh government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, denied Hasina’s ‘politically motivated’ charges on the verdict, and said the court “functioned transparently, allowing observers and publishing regular documentation”.

Hasina was assigned a state-appointed lawyer for the trial, but she refused to recognise the court’s authority and said she rejected all charge, an official told AFP.

Earlier, Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry also summoned India’s envoy to Dhaka this month, demanding that New Delhi block the “notorious fugitive” Hasina from talking to journalists and stop “granting her a platform to spew hatred”.

The death penalty against Sheikh Hasina has drawn the concern again around her being in India, and whether New Delhi would extradite her.

Speaking on the issue, Sreeradha Datta, a professor specialising in South Asian Studies at India’s Jindal Global University, told Al Jazeera that India will not extradite the Bangladeshi fugitive former prime minister.

“Under no circumstances is India is going to extradite her,” she said, adding, “We saw in the last year and a half that relationships between India and Bangladesh are not at their best, and have been fragile at many occasions.”

Sheikh Hasina’s detailed statement on the International Crimes Tribunal’s verdicts against her –

The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate.

They are biased and politically motivated. 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.

I reject the ICT’s other allegations of human rights abuses as equally unevidenced. I am very proud of my government’s record on human rights and development.

We led Bangladesh to join the International Criminal Court in 2010, gave refuge to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar, expanded access to electricity and education, and presided over a 450% GDP growth over 15 years, lifting millions out of poverty. These achievements are a matter of historical record. They are not the acts of a leadership unconcerned by human rights. And Dr Yunus and his vengeful cronies can claim no achievements that are remotely comparable.

Reacting to the crimes tribunal’s verdict, Sheikh Hasina said, “Verdicts announced against me made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate…they are biased and politically motivated. I given no fair chance to defend myself in court,” she said.

The ex-Bangladesh PM added that she was “not afraid to face my accusers in proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed, tested fairly”, adding that her government “lost control of the situation but (it) cannot characterise what happened as premeditated assault on citizens”.

During the trial, prosecutors told the Bangladesh court that they had uncovered evidence of her direct command to use lethal force to suppress a student-led uprising in July and August 2024.

According to a United Nations report, up to 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests between July 15 and August 5, 2024, with thousands more injured — most of them by gunfire from security forces — in what was the worst violence in Bangladesh since its 1971 war of independence, Reuters said.

The defence lawyers of Sheikh Hasina have called the charges against her “baseless and politically motivated”.

As for the verdict, it can be challenged in the Supreme Court.

However, Hasina’s son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, told Reuters on Sunday they would not appeal unless a democratically elected government took office with the Awami League’s participation.

After a months-long trial, the Bangladesh tribunal on Monday sentenced Sheikh Hasina to death for “crimes against humanity” in students’ uprising last year.

As the judge pronounced the sentence, the courtroom erupted in joy with attendees applauding the order.

The Bangladesh court also awarded former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and Sheikh Hasina’s aide a death sentence.

Meanwhile, former Inspector General of Police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun has been given a lenient sentence of 5 years in prison.

Pronouncing the judgement, the court said Sheikh Hasina committed crimes against humanity by her incitement order and also failure to take preventive and punitive measures under charge 1.

In charge 2, the court said, Hasina committed one count of crimes against humanity by her order to use drones, helicopters and lethal weapons.

The Bangladesh ICT sentenced ousted PM Sheikh Hasina to imprisonment till death on one of the three charges.

The court is reading the sentence on killings and lethal weapons charges.

On all the charges, the ICT awards death sentence to Sheikh Hasina

A Bangladesh court on Monday found ousted PM and Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina guilty of crimes against humanity.

“…Sheikh Hasina has committed crimes against humanity. Six protesters at Chankharpul were killed using lethal weapons on August 5. By issuing orders and through the inaction of Sheikh Hasina, the then Home Minister, and the IG of police, the students were killed. These killings happened under the orders and full knowledge of PM Sheikh Hasina. By such acts, they committed crimes against humanity, ” the court read the charges.

Pronouncing a detailed verdict on Sheikh Hasina and two of her aides., the court said, “Accused prime minister Sheikh Hasina committed crimes against humanity by her incitement order and also failure to take preventive and punitive measures under charge 1.”

It added that “accused Sheikh Hasina committed one count of crimes against humanity by her order to use drones, helicopters and lethal weapons under charge number 2.”

The Bangladesh ICT on Monday said that Sheikh Hasina is “libel to be punished” for “crime against humanity” conducted during the protests in August 2004.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) was established in 2010 by ousted PM Hasina’s Awami League government to prosecute people for atrocities committed during Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971. Later, while the tribunal fulfilled a longstanding national demand for accountability, it soon became one of the country’s most politically divisive institutions.

Over the next decade, the ICT convicted and executed several opposition leaders, mainly from Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The execution drew criticism from global rights groups, which accused the tribunal of procedural flaws, rushed trials and selective targeting. Hasina’s government denied the allegations.

Despite the controversies, ICT remained one of Hasina’s most powerful judicial instruments – a court she created, expanded and heavily defended. And today, the same court is pronouncing verdict against her.

After her government was toppled in August 2024, the new interim administration reconstituted the tribunal to investigate the killings and abuses linked to the government crackdown on protesters. In an unprecedented reversal of roles, the court Hasina created just tried her as well as the former home minister and police chief for crimes against humanity.

Bangladesh’s ICT court has convicted ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of crimes against humanity on Monday, reported Reuters.

This follows a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.

Here are the visuals from outside the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) ahead of the announcement of the verdict in the case accusing ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun of committing crimes against humanity.

The tribunal is reading the verdict.

The Chief Prosecutor in the case, Mohammad Tajul Islam has described Hasina as the “mastermind and principal architect” of the alleged atrocities during the Bangladesh protests.

The tribunal concluded hearings on October 23 after 28 working days. AP reported that during this time, 54 witnesses testified about the state’s response to the student-led movement that toppled Hasina’s government on August 5, 2024.

Hasina fled Bangladesh the same day amid intensifying unrest and has since been residing in India. Kamal is also believed to have taken refuge in India. The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus has sought Hasina’s extradition, but India has yet to respond.

The situation in Dhaka has been tensed for the past few days in view of the ICT verdict against Hasina, and two her aides.

On Sunday, violence was reported in various parts of Bangladesh. There have been incidents of car arson, cocktail explosions and road blockades across the country.

The government has reportedly deployed border guards in addition to the army and police. People reportedly also blocked the highway by throwing trees at several places.

The three-member Bangladesh tribunal is pronouncing its judgement against Hasina and her two aides, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. They have also been charged with crime against humanity. Mamun, reports said, was produced before the tribunal.

Hasina and Kamal were declared fugitives and tried in absentia. Whereas, Mamun initially faced trial in person before turning approver.

Prosecutors have sought the death penalty for the accused.

Massive protest outside Sheikh Hasina’s house in Dhanmondi, Dhaka. Protesters have gathered outside her house as with bulldozers.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) has begun delivering its verdict in the case against her and two others.

Bangladesh’s ICT begins delivering its verdict in the case against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina. She is being tried in absentia over alleged crimes against humanity committed during last year’s student-led agitation that led to the fall of her Awami League government.

In Dhaka, families and protesters rally outside the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) seeking the death penalty for former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina.