Bangladesh prosecution demands death penalty for ex-PM Hasina

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”.

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.