The Death Sentence: Sheikh Hasina

Sheikh Hasina, a longtime leader of the Awami League and the daughter of Bangladesh's founding father, has been one of the most consequential figures in her country’s politics. She first served as prime minister in the mid-1990s and, more continuously, from 2009 to 2024, overseeing strong economic growth, infrastructure expansion, and significant social programs. At the same time, her administration faced serious accusations of authoritarianism, suppression of dissent, enforced disappearances, and weakening of democratic institutions. Her era was marked by both popular support among certain segments of society and deep opposition by others.

One of the key institutions linked to her political legacy is the International Crimes Tribunal – Bangladesh (ICT), established under her government in 2010 to prosecute alleged war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War. Originally intended to address transitional justice for the 1971 conflict, the tribunal later became a central mechanism for addressing other alleged rights abuses. Victims’ families have praised the ICT for enabling accountability, but have also been criticized by international human rights organizations for its procedural weaknesses, politicization, and the imposition of the death penalty.

In July and August 2024, a large-scale student-led uprising erupted in Bangladesh, sparked by backlash against the reinstatement of a job-quota policy favouring children of freedom fighters. What began as student protests escalated into a nationwide movement targeting what protestors described as entrenched patronage networks and an elite-dominated political system. Security forces responded with considerable violence, with United Nations estimates indicating that up to 1,400 people may have been killed during the crackdown, many shot by security forces. In August 2024, Hasina’s government collapsed and she fled into exile in neighbouring India, opening the way for a transition government.

The ICT-Bangladesh later charged Hasina and senior officials with crimes against humanity relating to the violent suppression of the 2024 protests. The official charges included incitement, ordering killings, failing to prevent atrocities, orchestrating attacks on civilians, and using drones, helicopters, and lethal weapons against unarmed demonstrators. In November 2025, the tribunal convicted Hasina in absentia and sentenced her to death. Alongside her, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was also sentenced to death. Ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who turned state witness, received a five-year prison sentence. Following the verdict, the Bangladesh foreign ministry called on India to extradite Hasina, though India has so far been non-committal.

Hasina’s relationship with the people of Bangladesh is deeply ambivalent. For many supporters, she symbolised national stability, continuity, and socio-economic progress: under her rule, Bangladesh saw infrastructure expansion, increased access to education and health, and growth in garment exports. Yet for others, her tenure represented concentrated power, exclusion of opposition voices, weakening of independent institutions, and an increasingly intrusive security state. When the protests erupted, they tapped into widespread frustration among youth and middle-class Bangladeshis who felt left out of the country’s gains, making her fall and prosecution emotionally charged and symbolically momentous.