Sheikh Hasina, former prime minister of Bangladesh, has been sentenced to death in an absentia trial that took place in the country’s capital, Dhaka. Hasina first took on the role of prime minister in 1996 under the political party Awami League. On November 17th, 2025, she was tried at the International Crime Tribunal (ICT), which found her guilty of crimes against humanity across five charges.
These charges came from the former prime minister’s violent crackdown on the student protests that took place during the summer of 2024. The 2024 protests in Bangladesh started in July in Dhaka University, and were triggered by a recent reinstated quota by the High Court the previous month, which would reserve 30% of the country’s public service jobs to the descendants of fighters of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Whilst this decision acted as the trigger, it was not this single isolated event that caused public discontent with the Awami League government, but rather years of grievances that had built up for working-class citizens.
One song that became popular amidst the protests emphasises this: “Those who are privileged, keep getting more [...] Those who are honest, have nothing to eat.” These grievances of economic inequality fuelled the protests, which began as peaceful; however, as they spread across the country, government action taken to shut them down became increasingly violent. This included police helicopters and the Rapid Action Battalion (Bangladesh’s premier counterterrorism police unit) being used to intimidate students from the air, and military rifles loaded with “lethal metal pellets” being used on protesters. The United Nation Human Rights Investigation on the crackdown found that up to 1,400 people had been killed, 12–13% of these being children. 11,700 others had also been detained or arrested, and the Bangladesh police reported that 44 of its officers had also been killed.
The protests came to an end on August 15, 2024. Towards the end of the protests, Hasina fled to India, where she has been in exile since, and the quota that had sparked up the protests was deemed invalid on August 5th. An interim government, led by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has been put in place to lead Bangladesh through its recovery.
One of the interim government’s key promises to the Bangladeshi people was the prosecution of Sheikh Hasina, who was tried at the Independent ICT, which was originally set up by her in 2010 for investigations into crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. During her time in power, Hasina was criticised for utilising it for politically motivated purposes by human rights organisations. The five charges Hasina was tried for were orchestrating mass killings of protesters, ordering or authorising lethal force from the air and ground, murdering specific individuals, incinerating and disposing of bodies to hide evidence, and coordinating killings and persecutions of demonstrators in specific areas.
She was issued with three categories of punishment by the tribunal across these charges, two of which resulted in the death penalty. The tribunal’s decision of the death penalty has been criticised by the United Nations. In a statement delivered by spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, they recognise that Hasina’s verdict is an important moment for the victims who have lost their lives because of her lethal and violent actions against protesters, many of whom were students.
However, they reiterate that they regret the imposition of a death penalty, stating that it is something they “oppose in all circumstances”. Despite the tribunal’s verdict, Hasina remains in New Delhi, which geopolitical analysts have commented on, theorising that they doubt the likelihood of India returning Hasina to Bangladesh to face the death penalty. Dhaka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that it is the “responsibility” of India to ensure that Hasina is returned to face her sentence, calling it a “disregard” for justice to continue letting Hasina take refuge in New Delhi.
However, Bangladesh’s rising tensions with India leaves the outcome of Hasina’s death penalty uncertain.