On 17 November 2025, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death in absentia. The court found her guilty of crimes against humanity for ordering the shooting of unarmed protesters in Dhaka during the 2024 demonstrations. The verdict came more than a year after she resigned and left Bangladesh on 5 August 2024, following weeks of unrest that ended her 15 years in power.
Source: The Indian Express
Hasina’s fall marked the end of a long political journey that began with her family’s central role in Bangladesh’s history. She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s first President and founding leader. Her early years were shaped by his influence and the politics of the liberation movement. She studied at the University of Dhaka, where she became active in student politics.
Source: BBC, Bangladesh Awami League archives
In 1975, her father, mother, and siblings were killed in a military coup. Only Hasina and her sister survived. She lived in India for six years in exile before returning to lead her father’s party, the Awami League, in 1981.
Source: The Indian Express, BBC
Hasina became a key figure in the pro-democracy movement that ended the rule of Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1990. In 1996, she was elected Prime Minister for the first time. During her first term, she signed the Ganga water-sharing treaty with India and the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord, both seen as major policy moves at the time.
Source: Economic Times, Bangladesh Election Commission
She lost the 2001 election but returned to power in 2009 and went on to serve four consecutive terms. Under her leadership, Bangladesh’s economy grew steadily, averaging 6% annual growth between 2009 and 2023. Poverty levels dropped from 11.8% in 2010 to 5% in 2022, and the country’s per capita GDP overtook India’s in 2020.
Source: The Guardian, World Bank
Alongside these economic gains, her government faced growing criticism for corruption and crackdowns on dissent. In 2021, the United States sanctioned the Rapid Action Battalion, an elite police unit accused of human rights abuses.
Source: US Department of the Treasury, BBC
In 2023, world leaders including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki-moon, and Bono urged her to stop the persecution of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate. Ahead of the 2024 elections, thousands of opposition leaders and activists were detained. Hasina denied accusations of abuse of power and said the elections were free and fair, but Western governments declared them not credible.
Source: PTI, Human Rights Watch, Associated Press, The Guardian
Months after her re-election, student protests over government job quotas spread across universities. Hasina called the protesters traitors, and security forces responded with force. Over 200 people were killed, according to The New York Times. The protests grew into a wider anti-government movement, forcing Hasina to step down and leave the country in August 2024.
Source: The New York Times, BBC, StringersHub footage
More than a year later, the Tribunal’s 453-page judgment found Hasina and two co-accused guilty of ordering the shootings that killed six unarmed protesters in Dhaka’s Chankharpul area. She remains in exile, reportedly in India. The extradition treaty between the two countries allows refusal if the charges are political or not made in good faith, meaning the sentence may not be enforced soon.
Source: The Indian Express, November 2025
Hasina’s story spans Bangladesh’s entire post-independence history — from the daughter of its first leader, to the face of its economic rise, and finally to a leader forced into exile and sentenced to death. Her conviction closes one of the most turbulent chapters in Bangladesh’s politics.
