Sheikh Hasina ordered repression of student demonstrations in 2024; UN estimates that up to 1,400 people may have been killed
The former Prime Minister of Bangladesh was charged this Monday (17.Nov.2025) with crimes against humanity. She was judged for the way her government responded to students in 2024 and described by the prosecution as the “mentor, conductor and superior commander” of atrocities committed at the time.
In February 2025, the United Nations Human Rights Office estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh during 3 weeks of repression of protests and in the two weeks following August 5, 2024. Read the statement in English (PDF – 457 kB).
The events that motivated the accusations took place during student protests against the Hasina government in 2024. The repression of protesters triggered a popular uprising that culminated in the fall of her government in August of the same year.
The prosecution argued that Hasina was directly responsible for ordering all state forces, her party, the Awami League, and her associates to carry out actions that led to:
- mass murders;
- injuries;
- targeted violence against women and children;
- incineration of bodies;
- denial of medical treatment to the injured.
When communicating the sentence this Monday (Nov 17), judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder stated that Hasina was found guilty of charges such as incitement, ordering murders and failure to prevent atrocities during the revolt.
Hasina fled to India in August 2024 and remains in exile. In a statement, she accused the court of being “partial and politically motivated”.
The former prime minister said that, “in his repugnant request for the death penalty”, the country’s Justicereveals the brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government to remove Bangladesh’s last elected prime minister.”.
