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The ex-prime minister of Bangladesh has been handed capital punishment for human rights violations over her crackdown on protests led by students which led to her removal from power.

Sheikh Hasina was found guilty of authorizing deadly measures to be used against demonstrators, among whom around 1,400 people lost their lives during the disturbances in the previous year.

Hasina was tried while she was absent by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh, having been exiled in India since she was forced from power in July 2024.

Prosecutors accused her of being the mastermind of hundreds of killings during the protests. Hasina has denied the entire case, calling the trial as "prejudiced and driven by politics".

The decision signifies a decisive point for Bangladesh, as the protests brought forth resentment over extended periods of oppression. Next of kin of victims and harmed had called for strict sentences.

Answering the judgment in a detailed document, the former leader stated the death penalty was the caretaker administration's way of "eradicating the Awami League" as a governing body and that she was content of her administration's performance on individual freedoms.

"I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the proof can be evaluated and reviewed impartially."

The capital, Dhaka, where the legal proceedings occurred, was under enhanced protection prior to the decision on Monday, with numerous opponents of Hasina organizing a demonstration and celebrating as the judgment was announced.

Dhaka experienced a recent spike in unrest, with numerous incendiary devices set off and buses set on fire in the period preceding the verdict.

At least one bomb explosion was recorded in Dhaka on Monday morning, with no victims identified, area law enforcement officer Jisanul Haque informed press agencies.

The protest movement led by students in the previous year commenced through demands to abolish public sector reservation policies but morphed into a more extensive dissent initiative.

United Nations rights examiners declared in an analysis in February that the around 1,400 fatalities could constitute "crimes against humanity".

The study recorded the shooting at point-blank range of certain demonstrators, the deliberate maiming of further participants, arbitrary arrests and torture.

Disclosed sound files of a telephone conversation involving Hasina confirmed by external reviews earlier this year implied she had approved the use of "deadly arms" in July 2024. The sound file was broadcast in court during the trial.

Prior to the ruling, relatives of those killed during the protests told media representatives they wanted the former leader to face strict penalties.

A family representative, whose family member was fatally wounded in July 2024, said he wanted "severe penalty" for her and co-accused who have "committed acts of vengeance and abused their power".

Lucky Akther, whose partner was fatally injured near Dhaka in August 2024, said she wanted the former leader's punishment to be "carried out before the election".

"Only then the kin of victims [in the protests] will achieve closure in their souls."

After her departure, an interim government led by economist Muhammad Yunus has taken charge. A parliamentary election is set for February 2026.

Nonetheless, the Awami League, Hasina's political party, was outlawed by Bangladesh's caretaker administration in May.

The former leader cautioned in the previous month that if the the League's representatives were banned from standing in the forthcoming vote, countless would abstain the vote.

The verdict now poses a foreign relations issue for the neighboring countries. Authorities have sought her return but to date India has demonstrated no inclination to agree.

Her officially designated attorney the defense lawyer said he was "unhappy and desiring the verdict had been different".

"I cannot even contest because my clients are absent; which is why I am sad," he added.

Recently, her legal team said they had filed an urgent appeal to the UN raising major judicial fairness and legal procedure concerns at the ICT.

The former leader faced trial together with her previous domestic affairs official and security forces head.

Although the punishment offers some closure to families of killed in the protests, it may have minimal effect on calming the state's ideological splits.

"The anger against the former leader and the the former ruling faction has not subsided," a human rights advocate from the capital informed press agencies. "The leader and her faction has expressed regret or shown any remorse for the fatalities of countless citizens."

The advocate declared "It makes it difficult for the party to be accepted by a bulk of the population in this country."

The activist added that the punishment was not finality for the families of those killed and injured.

"We support numerous persons who lost their limbs forever, they are amputees now, because of the suppression. They are incapable of excusing her."

A journalist, an observer of Bangladeshi affairs, said the "fundamental aspect of the condemnation could make it even more difficult" for Awami League to become a regular participant of the country's governance system again.

This could alter if "there is some kind of apology and a distancing from the former leader and the old leadership," he said.