New Delhi, Nov 17 : Sentenced to death after a trial in absentia in Bangladesh, a defiant Sheikh Hasina on Monday charged that the judgement has been made by a “rigged tribunal” established and presided over by an “unelected government with no democratic mandate”.
In a strongly-worded statement, the 78-year-old Awami League leader, who has been living in India since she was deposed as prime minister of Bangladesh on August 5 last year following massive violent protests, said the “politically motivated” verdict reveals the “brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government” against her and her party.
“I wholly deny the accusations that have been made against me in the ICT,” Hasina said after she was sentenced to death on Monday by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) for “crimes against humanity” over her government’s crackdown on student-led protests last year.
She was earlier declared a fugitive by the court.
In its verdict that followed a months-long trial, the ICT described her as the “mastermind and principal architect” of the violent repression that killed hundreds of protesters.
In her reaction, Hasina said the judgement has been made by a “rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate”.
“They are biased and politically motivated. In their distasteful call for the death penalty, they reveal the brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government to remove Bangladesh’s last elected prime minister, and to nullify the Awami League as a political force,” she said in the statement.
Hasina said she was not afraid to face her “accusers” in a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly.
“That is why I have repeatedly challenged the interim government to bring these charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.”
The verdict comes months before parliamentary elections in Bangladesh. Hasina’s Awami League party has been barred from contesting the elections scheduled to be held in February.
She said millions of Bangladeshis toiling under the “chaotic, violent and socially-regressive” administration of Mohammad Yunus “will not be fooled by this attempt to short-change them of their democratic rights”.
“They can see that the trials conducted by the so-called International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) were never intended to achieve justice or provide any genuine insight into the events of July and August 2025,” Hasina said.
Rather, their purpose was to “scapegoat” the Awami League and to “distract the world’s attention” from the failings of Yunus and his ministers, she charged.
The Yunus-led interim government in Dhaka took charge after the fall of the Hasina government.
“Under his aegis, public services have fallen apart. Police have retreated from the country’s crime-ridden streets and judicial fairness has been subverted, with attacks on Awami League adherents going unpunished,” she alleged.
“Hindus and other religious minorities are assaulted, and women’s rights are suppressed. Islamic extremists inside the administration, including figures from Hizb-ut-Tahrir, seek to undermine Bangladesh’s long tradition of secular government.
“Journalists are locked up and menaced, economic growth has stalled, and Yunus has delayed elections and then banned the country’s most longstanding party (the Awami League) from participating in those elections,” the former prime minister of Bangladesh charged.
In recent media interviews, Hasina has described the ICT as a “kangaroo court” run by her opponents.
The ICT, originally set up to try hardened collaborators of Pakistani forces during the 1971 Liberation War, was amended by the current administration to bring leaders of the past regime, including Hasina, under its jurisdiction.
“I mourn all of the deaths that occurred in July and August of last year, on both sides of the political divide. But neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protestors. I comment further on the substance of the charges below. But first I note that I was given no fair chance to defend myself in court, nor even to have lawyers of my own choice represent me in absentia,” she said.
Despite its name, there is “nothing international about the ICT; nor is it in any way impartial,” Hasina said. (PTI)
