Former Bangladesh leader Hasina sentenced to death for crackdown on uprising that ousted her

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 or imprisoned.

Hasina, who was convicted on five charges of crimes against humanity, was also sentenced to prison until natural death for making inflammatory remarks and ordering the extermination of student protesters through the use of helicopters, drones, and lethal weapons.

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

More than 800 people were killed and about 14,000 were injured in the student-led uprising in July and August of 2024, according to the health adviser to Bangladesh’s interim government. However, the United Nations in February estimated as many as 1,400 people were killed.

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."

Her Awami League party called for a national shutdown on Tuesday to protest the verdict.

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. Political bickering, the rise of Islamists, and violations of human and political rights have overshadowed aspirations for a more democratic Bangladesh, human rights groups say.

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 the Awami League 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.

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.

Separately, Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry in a statement said it would be extremely unfriendly and demeaning to justice for any other country to grant asylum to these individuals convicted of crimes against humanity.

“We urge the Indian government to immediately hand over these two convicts to the Bangladeshi authorities. It is also a legal obligation for India as per the existing extradition treaty between the two countries," it said.

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.

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, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, hailed the verdict.

BNP Secretary General 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.”

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 elsewhere in Dhaka charged with batons and used stun grenades to disperse crowds.

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 earlier protests.

By the time evening fell, more than 300 people were still there and burned tires on the streets in Dhanmondi neighborhood while police and soldiers failed to convince them to leave the area.

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.

Associated Press journalist Rajesh Roy contributed from New Delhi.

Police use baton to disperse protesters gather outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after the verdict against Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/ Rajib Dhar)

Police use stun grenades to disperse protesters gathering outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following the verdict against her, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/ Rajib Dhar)

Protesters shout slogans outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of an expected verdict against Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahadul Karim Khan)

Protesters throw stones and shout slogans during a standoff with police outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after the verdict against Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/ Rajib Dhar)

Police use baton to disperse protesters gather outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of an expected verdict against Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/ Ahadul Karim Khan)

Protesters shout slogans outside the demolished residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's former leader and the father of the country's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of an expected verdict against Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/ Ahadul Karim Khan)

A police man checks the bag of a commuter near International Crimes Tribunal after security has been beefed up across the country ahead of an expected verdict against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

Policemen stand guard outside International Crimes Tribunal after security has been beefed up across the country ahead of an expected verdict against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

Bangladeshi Army soldiers stand guard outside the Supreme Court after security have been beefed up across the country ahead of an expected verdict against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

Security personnel walk past a bus stop as ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her former ruling Awami League party called for a nationwide "lockdown" in protest against her trial, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Security personnel stand guard at a traffic intersection as ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her former ruling Awami League party called for a nationwide "lockdown" in protest against her trial, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

FILE- Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks during a press conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Jan. 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

Security personnel stand guard at Bangladesh's Supreme Court as ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her former ruling Awami League party called for a nationwide "lockdown" in protest against her trial in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says Sonny Gray admitted he expressed a desire to play in New York at the behest of his agent so as not to harm his free-agency value and didn't voice his dislike of the Big Apple until after the 2018 trade deadline had passed.

Gray was acquired by Boston in a trade from St. Louis last month and spoke of his 1 1/2 seasons in New York during a Zoom news conference on Dec. 2.

“New York was, it just wasn’t a good situation for me, wasn’t a great setup for me and my family,” he said. “I never wanted to go there in the first place.”

His agent denied Cashman's allegations in an email to The Associated Press.

Gray was traded from Oakland to the Yankees in July 2017 and went 15-16 with a 4.52 ERA with New York. He was dropped from the rotation in August 2018 after he smirked when fans booed as he walked off the Yankee Stadium mound in the third inning of a 7-5 loss to Baltimore. He was dealt to Cincinnati in January 2019.

“After the deadline was over, he asked to meet with me. He said, 'Hey, can we talk?'” Cashman said Sunday night after arriving at the winter meetings.

Cashman recalled meeting with Gray in the clubhouse office of Chad Bohling, the Yankees' senior director of organizational performance.

“He said, 'I thought you were going to trade me,'” Cashman said. “I was like, publicly I’m out trying to get pitching, starting pitching and bullpen. Why would I trade a starter when we need pitching badly? ... And he goes, ‘Well I got to tell you, I’ve never wanted to —' that’s when he told me he never wanted to be here. He hates New York. This is the worst place. He just sits in his hotel room."

“I said, Well it’s a little late now,” Cashman recalled. “So then I told him, I said, but you said you wanted to be traded here. And he said, 'My agent, Bo McKinnis, told me to do that. He told me to lie. It wouldn’t be good for my free agency to say there are certain places that I don't want to go to.'”

“And I told him: Nothing I can do about it now. I wish you’d told me well beforehand. I wish we knew this before we even tried to acquire you that you never wanted to come here," Cashman said. "We tried to do our homework. … And I said so now we’ll just have to play the year out and this winter I’ll do whatever I can to move you and we moved him to the Reds.”

Cashman said the Yankees had a minor league video coordinator who had been roommates of Gray at Vanderbilt and that Gray had mentioned to his former roommate: "Tell Cash, get me over to the Yankees. Blah, blah, blah. Like I want out of Oakland. I want to win a world championship. Blah, blah, blah. So, and it wasn’t just him. He was communicating that to a number of different people that was getting to us, that he wants to be a Yankee."

McKinnis refuted Cashman's comments.

“So Brian is trying to make people believe I told Sonny to, in Cashman’s words, `lie' to the minor league video guy to try to get Sonny to the Yankees, even though, per Cashman, Sonny did not want to be with the Yankees, to subsequently somehow help Sonny’s free agency,” McKinnis wrote in an email to the AP.

“This makes zero sense,” McKinnis added. “If any player does not want to play for a certain club — thus potentially not performing at their best if they were with that team — it does not help their career and future free agency to lie their way into a trade to that club. Brian’s claim makes no sense. Further, the words, `I want out of Oakland,' have never been said by Sonny. He loved his time with the A’s.”

Now 36, Gray has become a three-time All-Star and is 125-102 with a 3.58 ERA over 13 seasons with the Athletics (2013-17), Yankees (2017-18), Reds (2019-21), Minnesota (2022-23) and Cardinals (2024-25). The right-hander waived a no-trade provision to accept the deal to the Red Sox.

“What did factor into my decision to come to Boston is it feels good to me to go to a place now where you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees, right? It’s easy to go out and have that rivalry and go in it with full force, full steam ahead," Gray said. "I like the challenge. I appreciate the challenge. I accept the challenge. But this time around it's just go out and be yourself. Don't try to be anything other than yourself and if people don't like it, it is what it is. I am who I am, and I'm OK with that."

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

FILE - St. Louis Cardinals' Sonny Gray pitches to a San Francisco Giants batter during the first inning of a baseball game, Sept. 24, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, file)