Will Bangladesh be able to break away from convicted leader's legacy?

Until August 2024, Sheikh Hasina stood as the most powerful leader in Bangladesh’s history after 15 years of iron-fisted rule. Yet the 78-year-old former prime minister was handed a death sentence in absentia this week over the brutal security-force crackdown on last year’s student-led protests, in which more than 1,400 people were killed.

After fleeing to neighbouring India following her ouster, she responded to the Bangladeshi International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) verdict by acknowledging that hundreds of innocent people had died, while refusing to take responsibility, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

“I mourn all of the deaths that occurred in July and August of last year, on both sides of the political divide,” it cites her statement. “But neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters.”

For millions of Bangladeshis, Hasina’s death sentence represents justice. Yet, as the article notes, India’s expected refusal to extradite her means families who lost loved ones to abuses under her rule will still have to wait for closure.

The publication argues that the verdict could mark a turning point for Bangladesh — an opportunity to break from decades of using security forces, courts and state institutions to target opponents and critics, practices that Hasina entrenched and came to symbolise.

Her claim that she is being politically persecuted reflects the same allegations her own government faced during its 15 years in power.

The ICT — the tribunal that has now convicted her — was created by Hasina herself in 2010 to prosecute Bangladeshis accused of collaborating with Pakistan in atrocities during the 1971 liberation war.

For years, human rights groups accused her of using the tribunal, along with courts and the security apparatus, to punish political rivals.

Her chief political opponent, Khaleda Zia — Bangladesh’s first female head of government — was jailed on corruption charges. Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party, was barred from elections and later banned under an “anti-terror” law. Zia was released only after Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’s interim government took power last year, following Hasina’s fall.

As Al Jazeera notes, Hasina and her Awami League have long presented themselves as champions of secularism. But during her 2009–2024 rule, they were accused of weaponizing that secularism to justify targeting Islamist parties and dissenters. A generation of Jamaat leaders was executed based on ICT convictions.

Now, as Bangladesh heads toward its first post-Hasina election in February 2026, the country faces a major test. In May, the Yunus government banned the Awami League from all political activity, leaving Hasina’s party unable to contest the upcoming vote. The article points out that this undermines the democratic rights of millions of Bangladeshis who still support the Awami League.

This move, the paper suggests, repeats the errors of previous governments that prioritised retribution over reconciliation.

"Convicting Hasina and sentencing her for her crimes is a critical step towards justice. But Bangladesh can truly move forward from the pain and trauma her government inflicted on the nation only if it breaks with the worst parts of her legacy — by building democratic institutions that are inclusive, genuinely participative, and crucially, non-vindictive," Al Jazeera concludes its analysis.

By Nazrin Sadigova