{"id":290259,"date":"2025-11-18T03:50:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T03:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290259\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T03:50:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T03:50:39","slug":"bangladesh-reacts-to-ex-pms-death-sentence-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290259\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh reacts to ex-PM\u2019s death sentence \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megaphones mounted on rickshaws broadcast the verdict which found Bangladesh<\/a>\u2019s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina<\/a> guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced her to death, but the hundreds of people waiting outside the entrance to Dhaka\u2019s high court were slow to react.<\/p>\n

Few understood the English-language ruling, which was competing with the usual honking of horns from the main road behind them, and the chatter that surrounded small-scale businesses selling tea, snacks and cigarettes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe killer Hasina got death-sentenced, we just got the verdict,\u201d one group eventually started chanting. A man, carrying a poster showing Hasina\u2019s neck in a noose, took off a shoe and began hitting her face with it. \u201cI am the happiest ever, I just heard about the news,\u201d he shouted. Another group \u2013 which included students and lawyers \u2013 began to pray.<\/p>\n

Hasina, who fled to India<\/a> in August last year, was tried in absentia in Bangladesh\u2019s International Crimes Tribunal, where the 78-year-old was found guilty of crimes including incitement, inaction to prevent atrocities and giving orders to kill, including the use of drones, helicopters and lethal weapons against protesters. She called the verdict \u201cbiased and politically motivated\u201d, and said she is not afraid to face her accusers \u201cin a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly\u201d.<\/p>\n

Protests erupted in the middle of last year, turning from a student movement, angry about how government jobs were distributed, into an uprising against Hasina, who had been in power for 15 years straight, and for five years before that. The resulting crackdown led to as many as 1,400 deaths, according to UN<\/a> figures.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople celebrate outside the International Crimes Tribunal after ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. Photograph: Sally Hayden <\/p>\n

\u201cI want her to be hung again and again, even after she\u2019s died,\u201d said Mobinul Islam (47), who had been standing outside Dhaka\u2019s high court from early morning. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a general, simple man and I want Bangladesh to be in peace forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammad Shahparan Sayem from the July Revolutionary Alliance, which was involved in organising protests, said he still had problems with his head and neck after being injured and had seen people killed around him. \u201cThe whole world is watching and waiting for this decision,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a very bad thing for the people, what happened in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearby was Amatullah Sharmeen (43), the daughter of Abdul Quader Mollah, a senior politician with the party Jamaat-e-Islami. Mollah \u2013 the first person to be sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal \u2013 was executed in December 2013 when Hasina was prime minister.<\/p>\n

\" Amatullah Sharmeen (43), the daughter of Abdul Quader Mollah, a politician with the party Jamaat-e-Islami. Mollah was executed when Hasina was prime minister. Photograph: Sally Hayden <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d Sharmeen said before Hasina\u2019s verdict. \u201cWe want justice for my father … We want justice for every single dead person … We want the death sentence.\u201d She said she would like to see the \u201cinternational community\u201d force Hasina to come back.<\/p>\n

More than 100 journalists also waited for the verdict from early in the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really significant in so many ways,\u201d said Fakhrul Islam (35), who works for Bangladesh\u2019s Daily Jugantor newspaper. As well as leading the country, Hasina was the daughter of the founding president of Bangladesh, he pointed out.<\/p>\n

Islam said he does not know what will happen next, as \u201cit depends on her party, how they react\u201d. Elections are expected to take place in February.<\/p>\n

\"JournalistsJournalists wait outside the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka for the verdict in Sheikh Hasina’s trial. Photograph: Sally Hayden <\/p>\n

In the weeks leading up to the verdict, residents of Dhaka were on edge, with a spate of arson attacks and crude bomb explosions thought to have been carried out by supporters of Hasina. Her Awami League party has been barred from taking part in the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n

Shah Jalal Miah (40), a travel agent and politician who expects to be a parliamentary candidate for the Gono Odhikar Parishad party, said he hoped Monday\u2019s verdict would make others realise that \u201cno one can become a Sheikh Hasina in our country,\u201d because the same would happen to them.<\/p>\n

He also said the international community has a role to play by keeping attention on Bangladesh to \u201cprotect our poor people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re depending on outside sources because if outside sources don\u2019t protect us we can\u2019t survive the devil. If you hear of something happening in Bangladesh I ask you to come and expose it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThereThere was a heavy security presence outside the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka on Monday. Photograph: Sally Hayden <\/p>\n

Bangladesh \u2013 with a population of roughly 173 million people \u2013 has an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. In a statement, its ministry of foreign affairs called for India to hand Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan \u2013 who was also sentenced to death in absentia \u2013 to Bangladeshi authorities, saying it is \u201can obligation\u201d under an existing extradition treaty. <\/p>\n

India said it noted the verdict, was committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh and would \u201cengage constructively\u201d, without going into more detail.<\/p>\n

In another statement from its press wing, the interim government called the death sentence a \u201chistoric verdict\u201d with \u201cprofound\u201d significance, while appealing for calm and restraint, and warning \u201ceveryone not to take any action that may disrupt public order under the influence of emotions\u201d. <\/p>\n

It said \u201cany attempt to create anarchy, disorder or disturbance of public order will be dealt with strict action.\u201d \u2013 Raahat Alam assisted with this reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Megaphones mounted on rickshaws broadcast the verdict which found Bangladesh\u2019s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina guilty of crimes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[2458,49,48,1799,82,43234,630],"class_list":["post-290259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-bangladesh","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-india","tag-sports","tag-united-nations-un","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}