Sheikh Hasina is a convicted fugitive.Until August 2024, she was the most powerful leader in Bangladesh’s history, after 15 years of iron-fisted rule. On Monday, the 78-year-old former prime minister was handed a death sentence in absentia over the brutal crackdown by her security forces on last year’s student-led protests. More than 1,400 people were killed, many of them execution-style.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listHasina, who had fled to neighbouring India after she was forced out of power, has over the past year remained combative and unrepentant. On Monday, she responded to the verdict by the Bangladeshi International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) by acknowledging the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, but refused to take responsibility.“I mourn all of the deaths that occurred in July and August of last year, on both sides of the political divide,” she said in a statement. “But neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters.”Hasina also called the verdict by the ICT “biased and politically motivated”.For millions of Bangladeshis, the death sentence awarded to Hasina represents justice, even though India’s likely refusal to extradite the former prime minister means that grieving families that lost loved ones to excesses under her rule will have to w …
