treaty<\/a> says: \u201cExtradition may be refused if the offence of which it is requested is an offence of a political character.\u201d<\/p>\nIndia has close ties to Hasina and has not formally responded to Dhaka\u2019s previous demands for extradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder no circumstances is India going to extradite her,\u201d Sreeradha Datta, a professor specialising in South Asian studies at India\u2019s Jindal Global University, told Al Jazeera. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, New Delhi has adopted a \u2018wait and see\u2019 approach until next year\u2019s election when a democratically elected government is back in power in Dhaka,\u201d Chietigj Bajpaee, a South Asia expert at the Chatham House think tank in London, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
However, Ishrat Hossain, an international relations expert and associate at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, told Al Jazeera the verdict would help Bangladesh\u2019s case in recovering Hasina and Khan.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitically and legally, the verdict strengthens Bangladesh\u2019s hand in pressing India to extradite Sheikh Hasina, who fled there after the collapse of her government,\u201d he said. \u201cIt also signals that the interim authorities intend to pursue accountability beyond symbolic gestures. Socially, this is an important early step toward acknowledging the suffering of survivors and the families of those killed under Hasina\u2019s watch, even if full justice remains a distant prospect.<\/p>\n
\u201cHolding the perpetrators of the police-led brutality during Bangladesh\u2019s 2024 uprising, where nearly 1,400 people were killed, has been a central priority of the interim administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
How has Hasina reacted to the verdict?<\/h2>\n
Hasina called the verdict \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d, the AFP news agency reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d she said from India.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed and tested fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who is Hasina?<\/h2>\n
Hasina, 78, is the daughter of Bangladesh\u2019s founding father, former President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. After the 1971 war, Bangladesh declared independence and split from Pakistan.<\/p>\n
In 1975, Rahman was assassinated in a military coup, ushering in a period of military and quasi-military rule.<\/p>\n
Hasina led a pro-democracy uprising that ousted military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1990. Hasina came to power in 1996 as leader of the now-banned Awami League party. The Awami League, founded in 1949, is a centre-left party with roots in Bengali nationalism and secularism. The party receives strong backing from those who supported the 1971 war.<\/p>\n
Her first term as prime minister ended in 2001 after her party lost the general election to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Khaleda Zia. Hasina became prime minister again in 2009 and remained in the position for 15 years until August 2024 when student protests forced her out of power and she fled to India. Bangladesh does not have a constitutional term limit for premiers.<\/p>\n
Since Hasina has been deposed, Bangladesh has been led by an interim government under Yunus. Elections for a new parliament are expected to take place in early 2026.<\/p>\n
In May, the interim government revoked the Awami League\u2019s registration and prohibited its political activities, citing national security concerns and ongoing war crimes investigations against senior members.<\/p>\n
Why was Hasina tried over student protests?<\/h2>\n
On July 1, 2024, Bangladeshis led mostly by students and other young people took to the streets to protest against a High Court decision to reinstate a policy reserving one-third of civil service positions for descendants of those who fought in the 1971 war.<\/p>\n
By July 19, the protests had escalated, a telecommunications blackout was imposed and the army was deployed to crack down on protesters. Student protesters were also attacked by Awami League\u2019s student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League. Thousands of students fought with armed police in Dhaka, and about 1,400 people were killed, according to estimates by the United Nations.<\/p>\n
The tribunal heard ample evidence that Hasina\u2019s forces were ordered to fire on unarmed protesters.<\/p>\n
During its own investigations since then, Al Jazeera also discovered secret phone call recordings in which Hasina \u201cissued an open order\u201d to \u201cuse lethal weapons\u201d on students protesting against her government\u2019s policies last year and shoot \u201cwherever they find them\u201d.<\/p>\n
What is the significance of this verdict?<\/h2>\n
\u201cAuthorities in the interim government want to show that it is possible to have a clean and better judicial process under their watch,\u201d\u00a0Abbas Faiz, an independent South Asia researcher, told Al Jazeera<\/p>\n
Faiz said while the Bangladeshis who lost loved ones during last year\u2019s uprising are likely to be pleased at the verdict, they still want to see \u201cclosure\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe significance of this verdict also opens the door for a national reconciliation process, which is not a bad thing,\u201d Faiz said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the possibility of enforcing the sentence is yet to be explored, the verdict has immense implications of various groups,\u201d Hasan Mahmud, an assistant professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the grounds of justice, it is the first major transitional-justice moment of the post-Hasina era, it sets a precedent for accountability of powerful leaders, and it signals whether Bangladesh\u2019s judiciary can establish autonomy after years of politicisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahmud added that the verdict marks a pivotal moment in Bangladesh\u2019s bid to move beyond decades of winner-takes-all politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe verdict has profound symbolic implications for Bangladesh\u2019s youth \u2013 the students, young workers and first-time voters who took to the streets. To them, this is not just about one leader. It is about ending a cycle of political repression, of corruption protected by state power, of dynastic politics that ignore ordinary people, of institutions captured by elites.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahmud said the youth view the verdict as a step in a wider fight for structural change, not an act of retribution. They seek an impartial justice system, freedom from intimidation, truly fair elections and a country where justice is free from partisan influence.<\/p>\n
Who was on the tribunal?<\/h2>\n
The ICT has three members and was headed by a retired district court judge, Justice Golam Murtaza Mazumdar.<\/p>\n
In December, the Awami League criticised Mazumdar\u2019s appointment as chairman of the tribunal in an X post, saying: \u201cGolam Murtaza Mazumdar retired in 2019 and has not served as a judge for five years. Despite this, he has been elevated to the status of an appellate division judge as the Tribunal\u2019s chairman.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other two members of the tribunal were Mohitul Haque Enam Chowdhury and Shofiul Alam Mahmood.<\/p>\n
Even though the tribunal was established by Hasina, members of her party have called it a \u201ckangaroo court\u201d, a derogatory term for a court or tribunal that ignores recognised standards of law and justice, often delivering predetermined or biased outcomes.<\/p>\n
How did the tribunal proceed?<\/h2>\n
In October 2024, the ICT issued an arrest warrant for Hasina and 45 others, including former ministers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court has \u2026 ordered the arrest of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and to produce her in court on November 18,\u201d Mohammad Tajul Islam, the ICT\u2019s chief prosecutor, told reporters in October 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cSheikh Hasina was at the helm of those who committed massacres, killings and crimes against humanity in July to August,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
A state lawyer was appointed to defend Hasina and the two other defendants on trial.<\/p>\n
Arrest warrants for Hasina and Khan were again issued in June after the pair failed to appear before the tribunal in November 2024. They were formally charged on July 10. Al-Mamun pleaded guilty on the same day and agreed to become a state witness and testify for the prosecution.<\/p>\n
Testimony was heard from August 3 to October 8. Final arguments concluded between October 12 and October 23.<\/p>\n
The tribunal examined a trove of evidence against Hasina: 14 volumes of documents spanning about 10,000 pages, including official reports, medical and postmortem records, ballistics data, flight logs and media footage; 93 documentary exhibits and 32 physical exhibits, such as ammunition, clothing, recordings and field reports; and testimony from more than 80 witnesses, including survivors, doctors, organisers and investigators with 54 testifying in court.<\/p>\n
Security was tightened in Dhaka before Monday\u2019s verdict, especially around the ICT and the surrounding Supreme Court area. Police and paramilitary forces \u2013 including the Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guard Bangladesh and army units \u2013 were deployed.<\/p>\n
A \u201cshoot-at-sight\u201d order was issued for anyone engaged before the verdict in arson, attacks involving explosives or violence in Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
Was the tribunal fair?<\/h2>\n
In October 2024, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a letter urging the interim government to amend the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act to ensure a fair and impartial judicial process.<\/p>\n
An HRW statement alleged that the tribunal has \u201cpreviously been fraught with violations of fair trial standards. This included failure of evidence gathering, lack of independence of judges including collusion with prosecutors, witness tampering, denying proper rights to defense, forcibly disappearing relatives of the accused, and the use of the death penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n
HRW urged the interim government to suspend and work to abolish the death penalty in line with international human rights standards, amend laws to safeguard due process rights of the accused and establish a well-resourced witness and victim protection unit capable of safeguarding individuals and their families before, during and after testimony.<\/p>\n
The fact that two of the defendants were not present during the trial is another cause for concern, analysts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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, \u2026 but they should not be used to downplay or deflect from Sheikh Hasina\u2019s actions,\u201d Thomas Kean, an analyst focused on Myanmar and Bangladesh at the International Crisis Group, was quoted as saying by the AFP.<\/p>\n
What happens next?<\/h2>\n
\u201cThis decision marks a significant inflection point in Bangladeshi politics, one that could trigger heightened volatility in the run-up to the February 2026 national election,\u201d Hossain told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
Hossain said that while the Awami League is now banned from participating in elections, the party retains a large, deeply embedded activist base that is likely to mobilise, potentially through disruptive and violent protests.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch confrontations risk re-creating the same patterns of repression and lethal force used by the law enforcers that the interim government now seeks to adjudicate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crucially, however, about 15 million Bangladeshis living abroad, many of whom came out to protest in solidarity with the students in 2024 \u2013 often risking imprisonment in the countries they live in \u2013 have now been given the means to vote by post for the first time. Many analysts think their votes could sway elections because they now account for about 10 percent of the nation\u2019s electorate.<\/p>\n
Hossain said instability is likely in the short term but it is unclear what will happen in the long term.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe short-term outlook is, therefore, turbulent. The longer-term implications \u2013 whether this ushers in a sustained shift toward accountability or entrenches another cycle of politicised justice \u2013 remain uncertain and will hinge on how both state institutions and political parties navigate the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moudud Ahmmed Sujan contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by a special tribunal in Dhaka. Hasina, who is in exile in India, was tried in absentia on charges related to her government\u2019s deadly crackdown on student protests in 2024. Prosecuting Hasina was a key promise made by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}