Sheikh Hasina addresses the U.N. General Assembly in September 2021. The verdict in the crimes against humanity case against her will be delivered on November 13
POOLThe verdict in the crimes against humanity case against ousted Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina will be delivered on November 13, the attorney general said, as the trial ended on Thursday.
Hasina, 78, has defied court orders to return from India to face charges of ordering a deadly crackdown in a failed attempt to crush a student-led uprising.
"If she believed in the justice system, she should have returned," Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman said in his closing speech of the nearly five-month-long trial in Dhaka.
"She was the prime minister but fled, leaving behind the entire nation -- her fleeing corroborates the allegations."
Her trial in absentia, which opened on June 1, heard months of testimony alleging Hasina ordered mass killings.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations.
Prosecutors have filed five charges, including failure to prevent murder, amounting to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law.
They have demanded the death penalty if she is found guilty.
Chief prosecutor Tajul Islam has accused Hasina of being "the nucleus around whom all the crimes were committed" during the uprising.
Her co-accused are former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, also a fugitive, and ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who is in custody and has pleaded guilty.
Witnesses included a man whose face was ripped apart by gunfire.
The prosecution also played audio tapes -- verified by police -- that suggested Hasina directly ordered security forces to "use lethal weapons" against protesters.
Hasina, assigned a state-appointed lawyer, has refused to recognise the court's authority.
Defence lawyer Md Amir Hossain said she was "forced to flee" Bangladesh, claiming that she "preferred death and a burial within her residence compound".
Her now-banned Awami League says she "categorically denies" all charges and has denounced the proceedings as "little more than a show trial".
Asaduzzaman, the attorney general, said it had been a fair trial that sought justice for all victims.
"We want justice for both sides of the crimes against humanity case, that claimed 1,400 lives," he said, listing several of those killed, including children.
The verdict will come three months ahead of elections expected in early February 2026, the first since Hasina's overthrow.
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Originally published on doc.afp.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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