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The country's previous leader has been handed capital punishment for atrocities due to her severe measures on youth demonstrations which resulted in her removal from power.

Hasina was declared culpable of authorizing deadly measures to be used against demonstrators, among whom around 1,400 people were killed during the unrest during 2024.

The trial proceeded without her presence by the International Crimes Court in Bangladesh, since she went into exile in India since she was forced from power in July 2024.

Legal authorities charged her of being responsible for hundreds of killings during the protests. The former leader rejected every accusation, calling the trial as "unfair and agenda-driven".

The decision signifies a decisive point for Bangladesh, as the protests brought forth resentment over extended periods of oppression. Relatives of the deceased and harmed had called for severe punishments.

Responding to the decision in a comprehensive declaration, she expressed the death penalty was the caretaker administration's way of "eradicating the Awami League" as a electoral entity and that she was content of her government's record on individual freedoms.

"I am not afraid to meet my challengers in a just legal forum where the evidence can be weighed and examined justly."

The nation's capital, Dhaka, where the court convened, was under tightened security prior to the decision on Monday, with numerous opponents of Hasina organizing a demonstration and celebrating as the sentence was declared.

Dhaka experienced a recent spike in turmoil, with numerous incendiary devices set off and coaches ignited in the time before the verdict.

At least one bomb explosion was noted in Dhaka on Monday morning, with no casualties reported, regional security representative Jisanul Haque told media outlets.

The protest movement led by students in the previous year began with demands to abolish government job quotas but morphed into a wider anti-government movement.

International human rights monitors declared in an analysis in February that the nearly 1,400 casualties could amount to "human rights atrocities".

The paper detailed the gunfire from minimal distance of a number of activists, the purposeful disabling of further participants, unjustified apprehensions and mistreatment.

Leaked audio of one of Hasina's phone calls verified by media examinations earlier this year suggested she had sanctioned the use of "lethal weapons" in July 2024. The sound file was broadcast in court during the trial.

Before the decision, kin of those who died in the demonstrations told press outlets they wanted Hasina to be punished severely.

Ramjan Ali, whose brother was shot dead in July 2024, said he wanted "severe penalty" for the former leader and associates who have "engaged in retaliatory actions and exploited their positions".

A different family member, whose husband was killed near Dhaka in August 2024, said she wanted the former leader's punishment to be "carried out before the election".

"Exclusively thereafter the kin of victims [in the protests] will achieve closure in their minds."

After her departure, an interim government headed by economic expert Muhammad Yunus has taken charge. A national vote is scheduled for February 2026.

Nonetheless, the her former political organization, Hasina's political party, was prohibited by Bangladesh's temporary leadership in May.

The former leader cautioned in the previous month that if the her faction's nominees were prohibited from running in the imminent electoral process, countless would abstain the ballot.

The verdict now poses a international dilemma for India and Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has asked her repatriation but until now India has expressed no readiness to agree.

Hasina's state-appointed lawyer Mohammad Amir Hossain said he was "disappointed and hoping the decision had been otherwise".

"I even cannot appeal because my clients are absent; that's why I am sad," he added.

Last week, her legal team said they had filed an urgent appeal to the UN pointing out significant due process and judicial process problems at the ICT.

Hasina was tried together with her ex-interior minister and police chief.

While the sentence offers some closure to families of killed in the protests, it may have minimal effect on calming the country's political divisions.

"The resentment towards the former leader and the her political party has not decreased," a human rights advocate from the capital told media outlets. "The leader and her faction has apologised or displayed repentance for the fatalities of countless citizens."

The activist stated "This creates challenges for the faction to gain approval by a most citizens in this country."

The activist added that the punishment was not resolution for the families of those who died and were wounded.

"We support several people who suffered permanent amputations, they are amputees now, as a result of the harsh measures. They will never be able to forgive her."

An analyst, a journalist and a long-time Bangladesh watcher, said the "very nature of the conviction could make it particularly hard" for Awami League to become a standard element of Bangladeshi politics again.

This might transform if "there is some kind of apology and a separation from Hasina and the previous administration," he said.