Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, was sentenced to death in her absence on Monday at the end of a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year .

People in the packed courtroom – including families of victims – cheered and clapped, and some in the crowds outside sank to their knees and offered up prayers after the verdict, the harshest against a leader in the country’s history.

Hasina – who fled to neighboring India in August 2024 at the height of the uprising against her government – issued a statement dismissing the court as a “rigged tribunal”.

The interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus described it as a “historic verdict”, but called for calm and warned that it would deal with any disord

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