DHAKA: Bangladeshi prosecution lawyers demanded on Thursday that fugitive ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina receive the death penalty in her trial for crimes against humanity.

Hasina has defied court orders to return from India, where she fled last year, to face charges of ordering a deadly crackdown in a failed attempt to crush a student-led uprising.

Up to 1,400 people were killed in the clashes between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations.

“We demand the highest punishment for her,” chief prosecutor Tajul Islam told reporters outside court. “For a single murder, one death penalty is the rule. For 1,400 murders, she should be sentenced 1,400 times — but since that is not humanly possible, we demand at least one.”

The prosecution alleges that Hasina, 78, was “the nucleus around whom all the crimes committed during the July-August uprising revolved”.

Prosecution alleges ex-PM responsible for all crimes committed during uprising

She is being tried in absentia alongside two former senior officials. Her ex-interior minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, is also a fugitive, while former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun is in custody and has pleaded guilty.

The prosecution said on Thursday that Kamal should also face the death penalty.

The trial, which opened on June 1, has heard months of testimony alleging Hasina’s role in ordering or failing to prevent mass killings.

“Her goal was to cling to power permanently — for herself and her family,” Islam said. “She has turned into a hardened criminal, and shows no remorse for the brutality she has committed.”

Prosecutors have filed five charges, including failure to prevent murder, which amount to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law.

Hasina’s now-banned Awami League says that she “categorically” denies the charges.

Hasina has a state-appointed lawyer but refuses to recognise the court’s authority.

The trial is in its final stages, with the interim government aiming to steer the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million towards elections in February.

Witnesses have included a man whose face was ripped apart by gunshot during the culmination of the protests.

‘Use lethal weapons’

The prosecution also played audio tapes — matched by police with verified recordings of Hasina — that suggested she directly ordered security forces to “use lethal weapons” against protesters and that “wherever they find (them), they will shoot”.

Hasina, already convicted in July for contempt of court and sentenced in absentia to six months in prison, also faces ongoing corruption cases.

Relatives including her daughter Saima Wazed, who has served as a senior UN official, and her niece Tulip Siddiq, a British lawmaker, also face corruption charges, which they deny.

The daughter of a revolutionary who led Bangladesh to independence in 1971, Hasina presided over breakneck economic growth.

Critics accused her government of unjustly jailing her chief rival, passing draconian anti-press freedom laws, and perpetrating a litany of rights abuses including the murder of opposition activists.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2025