Hasina’s Death Penalty

A tribunal in Bangladesh has sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina November 17 to death.

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The verdict was pronounced after convicting her of crimes against humanity, including murder and ordering the use of lethal weapons against protesters during the student uprising that ultimately ousted her last year. Hasina was doomed to get the harshest punishment from the moment the trial, conducted in absentia as Hasina had fled into exile, had begun. The verdict was only predictable as it was clear, even to the most naive, that she would be held to account for the killings of hundreds of civilians during the protests, which began peacefully but turned into a violent revolution after security forces ruthlessly suppressed the movement. The brutality of the crackdown was played out before the world on social media as scenes of repression were witnessed with students even jumping to death and injuries when police raided their university campus.

Hasina, of course, denied involvement in any atrocities and criticized the court proceedings against her. Her conviction came alongside her ex-interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and former police chief, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun who was, however, the only defendant present in court when the sentence was read out. He had pleaded guilty in July for his role in last year’s unrest and testified as a state witness.