FORMER PRIME MINISTER SHEIKH HASINA SENTENCED TO DEATH

Written by Michael Thervil

FORMER PRIME MINISTER SHEIKH HASINA SENTENCED TO DEATH | PHOTO BY AP

[Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina death] Today Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and daughter of the Founder of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina has been both convicted and sentenced to death for “Crimes Against Humanity” by the International Crime Tribunal (ICT). The former Prime Minister has been in office for over 20 years and is the longest serving Prime Minister in the history of Bangladesh. Now Sheikh Hasina has been residing in New Delhi, India.  Today's verdict could result in her being extradited to Dhaka. As the verdict was passed, protesters clashed with law enforcement in front of her ancestral residence. Presiding judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder stated during the trial:

“All the… elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled. We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence – that is, sentence of death.”

Today's verdict was centered upon the protest which was a student-led uprising that erupted in Dhaka, Bangladesh in August 2024 which led to the killing of an estimated 1,400 people and thousands more injured at the behest of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. While her detractors say she committed the crimes to stay in power, she and her supporters deny the claim and feel that she acted in “good faith” to stop the protest that turned violent. Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stated:

“We lost control of the situation, but to characterize what happened as a premeditated assault on citizens is simply to misread the facts. 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 protesters. The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate; they are biased and politically motivated.”

It should be noted that the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was not allowed to secure an Attorney and was instead given a court appointed Attorney. In rebuttal Sheikh Hasina challenged the courts to export the trial to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The reason for this is because the ICC specializes in cases that involve claims of Crimes Against Humanity. Sheikh Hasina and her constituents have called for a national lock down in Bangladesh as well as the execution of protests around the country as the party claims the people of Bangladesh reject the verdict of the death penalty.

While Dhaka is demanding that Sheikh Hasina be extradited to be executed, India appears to have reservation in fulfilling those demands and one of the reason why India is not appearing to honor the demands for Sheikh Hasina’s extradition is because it's possible that India perceives the charges brought upon Sheikh Hasina as being rooted in “bad faith”.

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Now there seems to be a three-way split between what Dhaka wants, combined with the fact that her political rivals are seeking to reverse the decades of progressive policies her administration created, and lastly whether India is in support of Dhaka’s demands of her extradition. What is odd about this ordeal is that although former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been pushing for Bangladesh to be more secular, last year's student protests which claimed 1,400 Bangladeshi lives were based upon new college grads not being able to secure government jobs. This is vital to understand because of the high level of corruption that took place when it came to who and how Bangladeshis were able to secure employment within their government, which were the best jobs in the country.

Instead of a level playing field in the government employment sector, students were forced to outright “pay to play” to get a job. This meant the better the job within the Bangladeshi government, the more the student would have to pay. This was also in conjunction with the fact that students had to compete with those who served in the Bangladeshi military, of which received what is known in America as employer preference.  Adding insult to injury with all of this going on, it does not matter if the person graduated from college – the only thing that mattered was if the person could “pay to play”.

Our prediction is that more violent protest, bloodshed, and chaos will ensue in the upcoming weeks as this verdict which appears to be “rigged” in hashed out between India and the people of Dhaka, Bangladesh.