A Bangladesh court will announce its verdict on November 13 in the crimes against humanity case against ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who remains in exile in India and has refused to return to face trial.
Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman confirmed the date Thursday after the nearly five-month-long trial concluded in Dhaka. The 78-year-old former leader, who once dominated Bangladeshi politics, stands accused of ordering a deadly crackdown on student-led protests in 2024 that left at least 1,400 people dead, according to United Nations estimates.
Hasina’s trial in absentia began on June 1 and heard extensive testimony and audio evidence suggesting she instructed security forces to use lethal force against demonstrators during the uprising. Prosecutors have filed five charges, including failure to prevent murder, which under Bangladeshi law amount to crimes against humanity. They have sought the death penalty if she is found guilty.
Attorney General Asaduzzaman argued that Hasina’s decision to remain in India is evidence of guilt. “If she believed in the justice system, she should have returned,” he said in his closing arguments. “She was the prime minister but fled, leaving behind the entire nation—her fleeing corroborates the allegations.”
Chief prosecutor Tajul Islam described Hasina as “the nucleus around whom all the crimes were committed,” while her co-accused include former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, also a fugitive, and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who is in custody and has pleaded guilty.
The trial featured harrowing witness accounts, including that of a survivor whose face was torn apart by gunfire. Prosecutors also presented verified recordings in which Hasina allegedly ordered security forces to “use lethal weapons” to suppress protesters.
Hasina, represented by a state-appointed lawyer, has refused to recognize the court’s legitimacy. Her legal counsel, Md Amir Hossain, claimed she was “forced to flee” and said she had “preferred death and a burial within her residence compound.”
Her banned Awami League party maintains that she “categorically denies all charges,” calling the proceedings “a political show trial.”
Asaduzzaman insisted that the case was handled fairly. “We want justice for both sides of the crimes against humanity case that claimed 1,400 lives,” he said.
The verdict, set to be delivered just three months before Bangladesh’s next general election in February 2026, could have far-reaching political consequences for a nation already deeply divided since Hasina’s overthrow.