Dhaka warns “granting asylum to these convicts… would be extremely unfriendly and an affront to justice”
DHAKA
Bangladesh on Monday demanded India extradite ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, hours after she was sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity.
Hasina’s autocratic rule was backed by New Delhi, and the 78-year-old fled to India after her ouster in a mass uprising in August 2024, fraying relations between the two neighbours.
She has been in hiding ever since.
On Monday a court in Dhaka sentenced Hasina as well as former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death in absentia, after being found guilty of crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown against last year’s student-led uprising.
The former minister’s whereabouts are not known, but Bangladesh says he is also in India.
“We urge the government of India to immediately extradite the two convicts to the Bangladeshi authorities,” Dhaka’s foreign ministry said in a statement, saying it was “an obligatory responsibility for India”.
Bangladesh warned that “granting asylum to these convicts… would be extremely unfriendly and an affront to justice.”
India’s foreign ministry said that it had “noted the verdict” of Hasina.
“India remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability,” the ministry said in a statement that does not directly address the issue of potential extradition.
Hasina’s 15-year tenure saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.
Bangladesh last year said it would request an Interpol red notice for Hasina, but there was no record on the global police body alert law enforcement list.
Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus welcomed the verdict.
“The awarding of death sentences to Sheikh Hasina and Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal in the crimes against humanity case is a historic verdict,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner said in a statement.
He called for calm and warned against any “attempt to violate public order”, urging “everyone to refrain from any indisciplined acts”.
Hasina’s son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, told Reuters on the eve of the verdict that they would not appeal unless a democratically elected government took office with the Awami League’s participation.
During the trial, prosecutors told the court that they had uncovered evidence of her direct command to use lethal force to suppress a student-led uprising in July and August 2024.
According to a United Nations report, up to 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests between July 15 and August 5, 2024, with thousands more injured — most of them by gunfire from security forces
Hasina was represented by a state-appointed defence counsel who told the court that the charges against her were baseless and pleaded for her acquittal.
Ahead of the verdict, Hasina dismissed the accusations and the fairness of the Tribunal proceedings, asserting a guilty verdict was “a foregone conclusion.”
Bangladesh has been tense ahead of the verdict, with at least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles torched across the country over the past few days. There have been no casualties, however.
