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The country's previous leader has been sentenced to death for atrocities due to her severe measures on youth demonstrations which resulted in her removal from power.

Hasina was declared culpable of permitting fatal actions to be used against demonstrators, among whom around 1,400 people died during the disturbances during 2024.

The trial proceeded without her presence by the International Crimes Court in Bangladesh, having been exiled in India since she was forced from power in July 2024.

Prosecutors accused her of being the mastermind of hundreds of killings during the protests. She has refuted the entire case, labeling the proceedings as "prejudiced and driven by politics".

The verdict marks a critical juncture for Bangladesh, as the protests revealed fury over long-standing suppression. Next of kin of victims and harmed had demanded severe punishments.

Answering the judgment in a comprehensive declaration, she expressed the death penalty was the temporary leadership's way of "nullifying [her party] the Awami League" as a governing body and that she was content of her government's record on human rights.

"I do not fear to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the facts can be assessed and examined justly."

The nation's capital, Dhaka, where the tribunal took place, was under enhanced protection before the ruling on Monday, with several of her detractors staging a rally and celebrating as the judgment was announced.

Dhaka experienced a sudden increase in disturbances, with numerous incendiary devices set off and buses set on fire in the period preceding the verdict.

A minimum of one detonation was reported in Dhaka on Monday morning, with no victims identified, area law enforcement officer Jisanul Haque informed media outlets.

The student-led uprising in the previous year commenced through calls to eliminate state employment quotas but morphed into a more extensive dissent initiative.

United Nations rights examiners said in a report in February that the around 1,400 fatalities could represent "human rights atrocities".

The report documented the gunfire from minimal distance of certain demonstrators, the purposeful disabling of additional individuals, arbitrary arrests and torture.

Unauthorized recordings of a telephone conversation involving Hasina verified by media examinations during the current year suggested she had approved the use of "lethal weapons" in July 2024. The recording was presented in court during the proceedings.

Before the decision, family members of those who died in the demonstrations informed press outlets they wanted Hasina to be punished severely.

Ramjan Ali, whose sibling was killed in July 2024, said he wanted "strict sentence" for her and co-accused who have "performed revengeful deeds and exploited their positions".

Lucky Akther, whose husband was killed near Dhaka in August 2024, said she wanted her penalty to be "carried out before the election".

"Exclusively thereafter the families of those killed [in the protests] will achieve closure in their souls."

Since Hasina's ousting, an interim government headed by economic expert Muhammad Yunus has assumed control. A parliamentary election is set for February 2026.

Nonetheless, the her former political organization, the former ruling party, was prohibited by Bangladesh's interim government in May.

Hasina warned in the previous month that if the party's candidates were barred from participating in the upcoming election, countless would abstain the ballot.

This decision presents a international dilemma for India and Bangladesh. Dhaka has formally requested her repatriation but so far India has shown no willingness to acquiesce.

Hasina's state-appointed lawyer Mohammad Amir Hossain said he was "disappointed and hoping the outcome had varied".

"I cannot even contest because my defendants are not present; for that reason I am disappointed," he continued.

Last week, her legal team said they had filed an urgent appeal to the UN raising significant due process and legal procedure concerns at the ICT.

Hasina was tried together with her ex-interior minister and police chief.

While the sentence grants partial finality to relatives of the deceased in the protests, it may do little to soothe the country's political divisions.

"The anger against Sheikh Hasina and the the former ruling faction has not diminished," a civil liberties campaigner in Dhaka told news organizations. "Both she and the organization has expressed regret or shown any remorse for the fatalities of countless citizens."

The advocate declared "This complicates matters for the party to be accepted by a most citizens in this country."

The advocate continued that the punishment was not closure for the kin of those who died and were wounded.

"We assist multiple individuals who underwent irreversible limb loss, they are now disabled, because of the suppression. They will never be able to forgive her."

A journalist, an observer of Bangladeshi affairs, said the "fundamental aspect of the condemnation could make it particularly hard" for the political faction to become a normal feature of the country's governance system again.

This could alter if "an expression of regret occurs and a separation from Hasina and the former hierarchy," he expressed.