 "FILE- Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, centre, is flanked by her daughter Saima Wazed. AP")
Moments after she was sentenced to death, Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the country’s International Crimes Tribunal verdict, calling it “biased and politically motivated”. In a formal statement, Hasina has stated that the death penalty is the interim government’s way of “nullifying [her party], the Awami League, as a political force”.
In a five-page-long remarks from the former Prime Minister, the trial was repeatedly described as “a farce” as she denied all charges. “I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,” she said, adding that she had challenged the interim government to bring these charges before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Hasina is currently in exile in India and had earlier assured her supporters that she would continue to fight. In the Monday statement, she noted that she is “very proud of [her] government’s record on human rights and development”.
Hasina sentenced to death
In a historic verdict on Monday, former Prime Minister Hasina was sentenced to death by the ICT after he was found guilty of committing crimes against humanity. Hasina was convicted on three out of five charges: Incitement of violence, issuing an order to kill and inaction over the July protests, which took a violent turn.
Other than Hasina, former Home Minister of Bangladesh, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, was also sentenced to death. Meanwhile, former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun , who later became an approver, was awarded leniency and received a five-year prison sentence.
All the convicts will now have 30 days to appeal the verdict to the Bangladesh Supreme Court. However, they will have to come back to Bangladesh and surrender themselves to the authorities to make that appeal. After the appeal is made, the Supreme Court will have 60 days to uphold or overturn the ICT’s ruling.
In the Monday ruling, the court also ordered compensation for the slain and the wounded. “The government is directed to pay a considerable amount of compensation to the protesters concerned in this case who have been killed in the July movement 2024 and also to take measures to pay adequate compensation to the wounded protesters, in consideration of the gravity of their injury and loss,” the court ruled.