Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina, sentenced to death in absentia on Monday for her deadly crackdown on student protesters last year, has been a dominant figure in the South Asian nation for half a century, a career rooted in bloodshed.

Thrust into prominence with the assassination of her father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and much of her family in a military coup, Hasina early on fought for democracy, but her long reign as prime minister became marked by arrests of opposition leaders, crackdowns on free speech and suppression of dissent.

She was found guilty of ordering lethal force by a tribunal in the capital Dhaka 15 months after resigning and fleeing to India in the face of a student-led uprising that killed hundreds or more.

JOINED RIVAL TO SEEK DEMOCRACY BEFORE FEUD

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