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Bangladesh's former prime minister has been handed capital punishment for human rights violations over her crackdown on protests led by students which led to her removal from power.

Sheikh Hasina was found guilty of allowing lethal force to be used against demonstrators, with approximately 1,400 individuals were killed during the disturbances during 2024.

Legal proceedings were conducted without her presence by the special international tribunal in Bangladesh, having been exiled in India after being removed from office in July 2024.

Prosecutors accused her of being responsible for hundreds of killings during the protests. Hasina has denied all charges, calling the trial as "prejudiced and driven by politics".

The verdict marks a critical juncture for Bangladesh, as the protests revealed fury over long-standing suppression. Relatives of the deceased and wounded had called for strict sentences.

Reacting to the verdict in a five-page statement, she expressed the execution sentence was the interim government's way of "nullifying [her party] the Awami League" as a governing body and that she was content of her government's record on civil liberties.

"I do not fear to meet my challengers in a fair court where the evidence can be weighed and reviewed impartially."

The capital, Dhaka, where the court convened, was under tightened security before the ruling on Monday, with numerous opponents of Hasina staging a rally and celebrating as the judgment was announced.

The city has seen a notable rise in turmoil, with multiple explosives detonated and coaches ignited in the period preceding the verdict.

At least one bomb explosion was noted in Dhaka on Monday morning, with no victims identified, local police official the police spokesperson informed media outlets.

The youth-driven revolt in the previous year began with calls to eliminate government job quotas but morphed into a broader opposition campaign.

United Nations rights examiners declared in an analysis in February that the approximately 1,400 deaths could constitute "human rights atrocities".

The report documented the gunfire from minimal distance of certain demonstrators, the purposeful disabling of further participants, arbitrary arrests and mistreatment.

Leaked audio of one of Hasina's phone calls authenticated by investigative sources during the current year suggested she had sanctioned the use of "fatal instruments" in July 2024. The recording was presented in court during the proceedings.

Before the decision, relatives of those fatally injured in the unrest told media representatives they wanted strict consequences for Hasina.

A family representative, whose brother was shot dead in July 2024, said he wanted "severe penalty" for the former leader and associates who have "committed acts of vengeance and misused their authority".

Another relative, whose spouse died near Dhaka in August 2024, said she wanted her penalty to be "carried out before the election".

"Only then the kin of victims [in the protests] will achieve closure in their hearts."

After her departure, an caretaker administration under the guidance of economist Muhammad Yunus has assumed power. A parliamentary election is planned for February 2026.

Nonetheless, the Awami League, the former ruling party, was outlawed by Bangladesh's caretaker administration in May.

She alerted in the previous month that if the the League's representatives were prohibited from running in the upcoming election, countless would abstain the vote.

This decision presents a foreign relations issue for India and Bangladesh. Authorities have sought her extradition but until now India has expressed no readiness to acquiesce.

Hasina's state-appointed lawyer Mohammad Amir Hossain said he was "unhappy and desiring the decision had been otherwise".

"I cannot even contest because my clients are absent; which is why I am sad," he stated further.

The previous week, Hasina's lawyers said they had submitted an immediate petition to the UN raising significant due process and judicial process problems at the ICT.

Legal proceedings involved Hasina alongside her former home minister and top law enforcement officer.

Even though the verdict provides certain resolution to kin of victims in the protests, it may not significantly ease the state's ideological splits.

"The anger against the former leader and the the former ruling faction has not diminished," a civil liberties campaigner in Dhaka stated to press agencies. "Both she and the organization has said sorry or displayed repentance for the killings of hundreds of people."

The activist stated "It makes it difficult for the party to be accepted by a majority of people in this state."

The campaigner further stated that the penalty was not closure for the families of those who died and were wounded.

"We work with numerous persons who lost their limbs forever, they are amputees now, because of the suppression. They will never be able to forgive her."

A journalist, a journalist and a long-time Bangladesh watcher, said the "inherent character of the guilty verdict could make it particularly hard" for Awami League to become a standard element of the nation's political landscape again.

This may change if "a form of contrition emerges and a separation from Sheikh Hasina and the previous administration," he stated.