Dhaka (AFP) - A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to be hanged for crimes against humanity, with cheers breaking out in the packed court as the judge read out the verdict.

Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her.

The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national television, comes less than three months ahead of the first polls since her overthrow in August 2024.

“All the… elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled,” judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the packed court in Dhaka.

The former leader had been found guilty on three counts: incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities, the judge said.

“We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence – that is, sentence of death.”

On the streets of Dhaka, crowds waved the national flag and celebrated.

Former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was also sentenced to death in absentia, after being found guilty on four counts of crimes against humanity.

Ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who was in court and had pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.

- ‘Pays the dues’ -

Hasina, who was assigned a state-appointed lawyer for the trial, called the verdict “biased and politically motivated”, in a statement issued from hiding in India.

“Its guilty verdict against me was a foregone conclusion,” Hasina said.

Her defence lawyer Md Amir Hossain, who she did not recognise, said Hasina could only appeal if she “surrenders… or is arrested”.

Shamsi Ara Zaman, whose photojournalist son Tahir Zaman Priyo was killed during last year’s protests, said she was “satisfied” with the death sentences but “dismayed” that the ex-police chief was handed only five years in jail.

Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since the end of Hasina’s autocratic rule, and violence has marred campaigning for elections expected in February 2026.

The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to cling to power, deaths that were central to her trial.

Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman praised the trial.

“The verdict pays the dues to the martyrs, to the country, to all citizens, to democracy, the constitution, the rule of law, and to our obligation towards the next generation,” he told reporters.

The trial heard months of testimony detailing how Hasina had ordered mass killings.

- Deepening crisis -

Security forces surrounded the court for the verdict, with armoured vehicles manning checkpoints and thousands of police officers posted across the capital.

Crude bombs have been set off across Dhaka this month, mainly petrol bombs hurled at everything from buildings linked to interim leader Muhammad Yunus’s government to buses and Christian sites.

Bangladesh’s foreign ministry summoned India’s envoy to Dhaka this month, demanding that New Delhi block the “notorious fugitive” Hasina from talking to journalists and “granting her a platform to spew hatred”.

The International Crisis Group said the “political repercussions of this verdict are significant”.

“The process has not been without critics,” ICG analyst Thomas Kean said.

“In absentia trials are often a source of contention, and in this case the speed with which the hearings were conducted and the apparent lack of resources for the defence also raise questions of fairness… But they should not be used to downplay or deflect from Sheikh Hasina’s actions”.

Kean added: “The prospect of Sheikh Hasina mounting a political comeback in Bangladesh now appears very slim”.

But Hasina remains defiant.

She said in October she “mourned all the lives lost during the terrible days” when students were gunned down in the streets. Her comments enraged many who said she had made a ruthless bid to maintain power at all costs.

Hasina also warned that the ban on her former ruling party the Awami League by the interim government was deepening the political crisis in the country of 170 million people before the elections.