Bangladesh's ousted leader Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death

Bangladesh's former prime minister has been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity over her crackdown on student-led protests which led to her ousting.

Sheikh Hasina was found guilty of allowing lethal force to be used against protesters, 1,400 of whom died during the unrest last year.

Hasina was tried in absentia by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh, having been exiled in India since she was forced from power in July 2024.

Prosecutors accused her of being behind hundreds of killings during the protests and families of those killed or injured called for tough penalties. Hasina has denied all charges, calling the trial "biased and politically motivated".

The months-long tribunal in Bangladesh's domestic war crimes court was widely expected to find her guilty.

But the verdict marks a pivotal moment for the nation, vindicating protests that found their roots in anger over years of repression under her rule.

Hasina had governed Bangladesh for 15 years, overseeing economic progress, but increasingly attempting to silence opposition, with politically-motivated arrests, disappearances and extra-judicial killings.

The protests saw Hasina forced to flee and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus installed as leader of an interim government.

Reacting to the verdict on Monday in a five-page statement, Hasina said the death penalty was the interim government's way of "nullifying [her party] the Awami League as a political force" and that she was proud of her government's record on human rights.

"I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly."

The student-led uprising last year started with demands to abolish government job quotas but morphed into a wider anti-government movement.