The sentencing of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by a tribunal in that country is a chronicle of death foretold, as it was clear from the beginning that the trial would end with the maximum sentence for her.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) described her as the “mastermind and principal architect” of the 2024 crackdown that claimed many lives during the protests that led to her ouster and escape to India.

Hasina has rejected the judgement, coming from a “rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government”. She has challenged the interim rulers to bring these charges in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague. Her party, the Awami League, has also approached the ICC for a probe into ‘retaliatory violence’ against its functionaries.

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