DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and one of her close aides were sentenced to death Monday over her crackdown on a student uprising last year that killed hundreds of people and led to the toppling of her 15-year rule.

The International Crimes Tribunal based in Dhaka, the capital, passed sentence on Hasina and former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan for their involvement in the use of deadly force against protesters.

Hasina and Khan, who fled to India last year, were sentenced in absentia. India has so far declined to extradite them, making it unlikely that they would ever be executed.

A third suspect, a former police chief, was sentenced to five years in prison after becoming a state witness against Hasina and pleading guilty.

Hasina and Khan were accused of crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of people during a student-led uprising in July and August of 2024. The health adviser to Bangladesh's interim government said more than 800 people were killed and about 14,000 were injured. However, the United Nations in a February report estimated the death toll could be up to 1,400.

Hasina's response

Hasina said the charges were unjustified, arguing that she and Khan “acted in good faith and were trying to minimize the loss of life.”

“We lost control of the situation, but to characterize what happened as a premeditated assault on citizens is simply to misread the facts,” she said Monday in a statement denouncing a verdict she called “biased and politically motivated."

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

Hasina, 78, cannot appeal the verdict unless she surrenders or is arrested within 30 days of the judgment.

Bangladesh is still grappling with instability after Hasina was ousted on Aug. 5, 2024. Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of an interim government three days after her fall. He has vowed to punish Hasina and banned the activities of her Awami League party ahead of elections set for February.

A three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, announced the ruling in a live broadcast that lasted for several hours.

Some of those in the packed courtroom cheered when Mazumder said Hasina was sentenced to death. He admonished them, telling them to express their feelings outside the courtroom.

Families of some of those killed or injured during the uprising waited for hours outside.

Exile in India

In a media statement Monday, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Home Affairs urged India to send both Hasina and Khan back soon, something New Delhi has so far refused to do.

India’s foreign ministry in a statement acknowledged the verdict but did not say whether it would hand the pair over to Dhaka.

“As a close neighbor, India remains committed to the best interests of people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country. We will always engage constructively with all stakeholders to that end,” it said.

India's failure to extradite the pair has created some tensions between the neighboring nations.

Yunus and Hasina’s archrival hail the verdict

In a statement, Yunus said the verdict offered justice to the thousands who were harmed in the uprising: “No one, regardless of power, is above the law."

Ordering the use of lethal force against young people and children, whose only weapons were their voices, violated laws and the basic bond between government and citizens, Yunus added.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, headed by Hasina’s archrival and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, hailed the verdict.

BNP General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said in a Facebook post that it wasn’t just a judgment on Sheikh Hasina’s crimes, but a “burial of all forms of dictatorship on this country’s soil.”

Arson and bomb attacks

Nearly 50 arson attacks, mostly targeting vehicles, and dozens of crude bombs explosions were reported nationwide over the past week. Two people were killed in the arson attacks, local media reported.

Authorities at the Supreme Court, in a letter to army headquarters on Sunday, requested the deployment of soldiers around the tribunal premises ahead of the ruling. Paramilitary border guards and police were deployed in Dhaka and many other parts of the country.

Even as judges were still reading out the verdict, police outside the court charged with batons and used stun grenades to disperse the crowd. By the time evening fell, more than 300 people were still there and burned tires on the streets.

Hasina’s Awami League party called Monday for a nationwide shutdown to protest the verdict.

Her son Sajeeb Wazed, currently in the United States, said in a message to The Associated Press that the “verdict is a joke and meaningless. My mother is safe in India. The trials were so legally flawed they won’t survive any challenge once rule of law returns to Bangladesh.”

A few kilometers away from the tribunal, Hasina’s opponents gathered outside the home of her father, Bangladesh's independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, that is now a museum. They brought two excavators to finish the demolition of the building, which was looted and damaged during protests last year.

The uprising began with weeks of student-led protests voicing discontent over a quota system for allocating government jobs that critics said favored those with connections to Hasina’s party.

Hundreds of people were killed as security forces cracked down on the demonstrations — violence that only fueled them, even after the quota system was dramatically scaled back.

Bangladesh's politics under Yunus has remained at a crossroads with limited signs of stability.

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Associated Press journalist Rajesh Roy contributed from New Delhi.