DHAKA – Seven key allies of ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faced death sentence over their alleged roles in deadly 2024 uprising.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal handed death sentence to political network of ousted PM Sheikh Hasina, sentencing seven senior Awami League figures to death over their alleged roles in crimes against humanity during the deadly 2024 uprising. The three-member tribunal in Dhaka, headed by Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, announced the verdict on Tuesday in a case stemming from the violent crackdown that ultimately brought down Hasina’s government.
The seven convicted leaders, all currently fugitives living in self-imposed exile in India or the US, include some of the most prominent figures from Hasina’s former ruling establishment.
They are former Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, former state minister for information Mohammad Ali Arafat, Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Youth Wing Chairman Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash, Youth Wing General Secretary Moinul Hossain Nikhil, Student Wing President Saddam Hussain and Student Wing General Secretary Sheikh Wali Asif Enan.
The tribunal went beyond the death sentences, ordering the confiscation of half the assets belonging to Quader, Nasim, Arafat and Parash. The court directed that the seized property be distributed as compensation to families of people who were killed or injured during the July uprising.
The ruling adds another explosive chapter to Bangladesh’s post-Hasina reckoning, as authorities continue pursuing senior figures associated with her former government.
The latest verdict follows the tribunal’s earlier decision against Sheikh Hasina herself. In November last year, the former prime minister was sentenced to death in absentia after being convicted of crimes against humanity and held responsible for the violent response to the uprising that eventually forced her from power.
Hasina fled Bangladesh following the collapse of her government and remains in India. Despite living in exile, she has vowed to return to Bangladesh in December.
2024 uprising became one of the most consequential political crises in Bangladesh’s recent history. UN estimates that around 1,400 people were killed and thousands more injured during the violence. The deaths were linked to a crackdown involving Hasina’s security forces and supporters of her Awami League.
The tribunal’s latest verdict therefore places seven more senior figures at the centre of an expanding judicial reckoning over the bloodshed.
The seven new death sentences add to a rapidly growing tally from Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunals. Across seven verdicts issued by the two tribunals, 68 accused people have now been convicted, while 22 have received death sentences. Of those facing the proceedings, 18 remain at large and four are in custody.
With Hasina herself already sentenced to death and seven of her senior allies now receiving the same punishment, Bangladesh’s post-uprising legal campaign against the former ruling establishment has entered an increasingly dramatic phase.
