Sheikh Hasina verdict highlights: UN ‘regrets’ death penalty for Sheikh Hasina, Yunus hails verdict

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: A Bangladesh tribunal court is likely to find ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina guilty of crimes against humanity on Monday.

Hasina, 78, faces multiple charges arising from the mass uprising that forced her out of office in August 2024. A UN rights office report estimates that up to 1,400 people were killed between July 15 and August 15 during the “July Uprising” as her government ordered a sweeping security crackdown.

An Reuters alert earlier stated that a verdict has been announced bu the tribunal is yet to announce a formal verdict.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: The tribunal court is currently reading the summaries of what the two sides argued in court. A large crowd has gathered outside Bangladesh's ICT-1 awaiting the judgment.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: Amid the unrest in July-August 2024, ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been accused of ordering helicopters and drones to shoot down protestors and civilian crowds.

It is among the five charges laid out against the former PM and her two top aides.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE updates: In the prelude to the verdict, the court continues to lay out the various allegations against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. During its reading, the court stated that evidence also suggests that Hasina ousted several journalists, politicians and activists for being critical towards the government.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE updates: As the verdict is read in the case against Sheikh Hasina, the court is reading out the videographic evidence submitted in the “crimes against humanity” charge which accuses Hasina of ordering targeted killing, ordering helicopters and drones to shoot and target civilians during the July-August protests.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE updates: Ahead of the verdict, Sheikh Hasina's son and advisor Sajeeb Wazed, said that the verdict will not impact his mother.

“We know exactly what the verdict is going to be. They're televising it. They're going to convict her, and they'll probably sentence her to death…What can they do to my mother? My mother is safe in India. India is giving her full security,” said Wazed, who lives in Washington DC, reported news agency Reuters.

Hasina fled to India in August 2024 and since then has been living in exile in New Delhi.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: Hundreds of protesters are marching towards Dhanmondi 32, which is the former residence of Sheikh Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Armed police officers have intervened to stop the protesters. Here are some pictures from the scene.

The residence, which is currently abandoned, has been targeted and set on fire several times since Hasina's ouster in August last year.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: The five charges listed in court against the ousted prime minister are -

• orchestrating mass killings of protesters in Dhaka
• the use of helicopters and drones to fire on civilian crowds
• the murder of student activist Abu Sayed
• the incineration of bodies in Ashulia to destroy evidence
• the coordinated killing of demonstrators in Chankharpul.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE updates: Ahead of the verdict in written responses to the media, the deposed prime minister denied all charges against her.

The Awami league leader added that the trial is a "farce" one by a "kangaroo court," adding that she did not issue any of the orders she has been accused of.

"I'm not denying that the situation got out of control, nor that many lives were lost needlessly. But I never issued any order to fire on unarmed civilians," she said.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE Updates: As the reading of the verdict commences, investigators had compiled one of the largest bodies of evidence the special tribunal has handled in the case against Sheikh Hasina.

Fourteen volumes of documents totalling nearly 10,000 pages, including local and international reports, medical records, postmortem files, ballistic logs, helicopter flight schedules and media footage were all put together to build the case against the ousted prime minister.

Furthermore, reports added that at least 93 documentary exhibits and 32 material exhibits, ranging from bullets and shell casings to blood-stained clothing, audio and video recordings, and field reports were collected.

Additionally, over 80 witnesses testified, of which 54 testified in court, including survivors, doctors, protest organisers and investigators.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE updates: Dhaka Metropolitan police chief Sheikh Mohammad Sazzat Ali has instructed officers to use firearms if anyone attempts to burn vehicles or hurl crude bombs during possible demonstrations in the city.

“Yes, I have given such directives. If anyone sets a bus on fire or throws a cocktail [crude bomb] and attacks police, will they sit idle?,” Ali was quoted by The Daily Star newspaper as saying, confirming the reports on his drastic order.

This order has been issued after at least 40 arson attacks and dozens of crude bomb explosions were reported nationwide over the past week, in the lead up to the court verdict today against Sheikh Hasina.

Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE Updates: The reading of the verdict in the case filed against Sheikh Hasina has begun. The former PM has five charges against her over “crimes against humanity”.

Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: Ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has denied all charges against her and rejected the trial as “politically motivated.”

“I categorically deny all charges brought against me,” Hasina said in a emailed response to questions.

“The claim that I ordered security forces to open fire on protesters is categorically untrue. At no time did I issue or authorize such an order. It didn’t happen, and the transcripts cited by the prosecution have been taken out of context and misused," she added further.

She stated that she would not return to Bangladesh to stand trial since the hearing “would not be fair”.

“Returning to my home under the current circumstances would not be justice, it would be a political persecution,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from across Bangladesh amid heavy security deployment ahead of a special tribunal verdict against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in a case of alleged crimes against humanity.

In Dhaka, near-empty roads were repored across the city. Protesters allegedly burnt tree trunks and tyres to block roads, while multiple crude bomb blasts rattled neighbourhoods in the national capital.

Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: The Awami league, which is Sheikh Hasina's party, called for a nationwide bandh or strike, on November 16 and 17. This strike, which the banned party claims is due to the “danger posed by the Yunus administration” was launched days before the much awaited “crimes against humanity” verdict against ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: Ousted PM Sheikh Hasina on Monday said that charges against her are false and baseless. In a fresh message to her supporters, she added that “destroying” her party Awami League is not so easy as it “grew the soil and the people” and not “from the pocket of an illegal power grabber”.

She also said that the allegations made against her are false, and that Bangladesh's interim government caretaker and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus seized power “illegally and unconstitutionally”.

Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: Ahead of the highly anticipated hearing, the interim government in Bangladesh has beefed up security in Dhaka and neighbouring areas. Paramilitary border guards and police have been deployed in the nation's capital and many other parts of the country as Hasina’s Awami League party called for a nationwide shutdown Monday to protest against the verdict, calling the tribunal a “kangaroo court.”

Sheikh Hasina verdict LIVE: Sheikh Hasina has been accused of orchestrating mass killings of protesters in Dhaka during the student protests, the use of helicopters and drones to fire on civilian crowds, the murder of student activist Abu Sayed, and the incineration of bodies to destroy evidence.

During the hearing, the prosecution has brought five charges of crimes against humanity, supported by extensive documentation: 8,747 pages in total, including 2,018 pages of references, 405 pages of seized materials, and a 2,724-page list of the dead.

Ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun are the key names in the case.