Dhaka (AFP) – A Bangladesh court sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to be hanged for crimes against humanity on Monday, with cheers breaking out in the packed court as the judge read out the verdict.
Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her.
The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national television, came less than three months before the first polls in the South Asian country of 170 million people since her overthrow in August 2024.
"All the... elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled," judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the court in Dhaka.
The former leader was found guilty on three counts: incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities, the judge said.
"We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence -- that is, sentence of death."
Crowds waved the national flag and celebrated on the streets of the capital.
Former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was also sentenced to death in absentia after being found guilty on four counts of crimes against humanity.
Ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who was in court and had pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
Hasina, who was assigned a state-appointed lawyer for the trial, called the verdict "biased and politically motivated" in a statement issued from hiding in India.
"Its guilty verdict against me was a foregone conclusion," Hasina said.
She can appeal against her sentence -- if she is arrested or surrenders, her defence lawyer Md Amir Hossain said.
Shamsi Ara Zaman, whose photojournalist son Tahir Zaman Priyo was killed during last year's protests, said she was "satisfied" with the death sentences but "dismayed" that the ex-police chief was given only five years in jail.
Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since the end of Hasina's autocratic rule, and violence has marred campaigning for elections expected in February 2026.
The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to cling to power, deaths that were central to her trial.
Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman said the trial "pays the dues to the martyrs", while interim leader Muhammad Yunus called it an "historic verdict".
The trial heard months of testimony detailing how Hasina had ordered mass killings.
Hasina was backed by New Delhi, fraying relations between the two neighbours since her overthrow, and Bangladesh reiterated its call for India to extradite her.
India's foreign ministry said that it had "noted" the verdict, adding it was "committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh".
It did not comment immediately on Bangladesh's extradition request.
Security forces surrounded the court for the verdict, with armoured vehicles guarding checkpoints and thousands of police officers posted across the capital.
Crude bombs have been set off across Dhaka this month, mainly petrol bombs hurled at everything from buildings linked to Yunus's government to buses and Christian sites.
Bangladesh's foreign ministry summoned India's envoy to Dhaka this month, demanding that New Delhi block the "notorious fugitive" Hasina from talking to journalists and "granting her a platform to spew hatred".
The International Crisis Group said the "political repercussions of this verdict are significant", arguing that the prospect of Hasina "mounting a political comeback in Bangladesh now appears very slim".
"The process has not been without critics," ICG analyst Thomas Kean said.
"In absentia trials are often a source of contention, and in this case the speed with which the hearings were conducted and the apparent lack of resources for the defence also raise questions of fairness... But they should not be used to downplay or deflect from Sheikh Hasina's actions."