DHAKA: Bangladeshi judges will deliver their verdict on Monday in the crimes against humanity trial of fugitive former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, a highly anticipated ruling before the first polls since her overthrow.
Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising that ousted her in August 2024.
She faces a possible death penalty if convicted.
Up to 1,400 deaths
The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to cling to power, deaths that were central to her trial.
"Justice will be served according to the law," chief prosecutor Tajul Islam told reporters when the verdict date was set last week.
"We hope the court will exercise its prudence and wisdom, that the thirst for justice will be fulfilled, and that this verdict will mark an end to crimes against humanity," he said.
Charges against Hasina
Prosecutors have filed five charges, including failure to prevent murder, amounting to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law.
The trial has heard months of testimony in absentia alleging she ordered mass killings. She has called the trial a "jurisprudential joke".
Her co-accused include former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal -- also a fugitive -- and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who is in custody and has pleaded guilty.
Hasina was assigned a state-appointed lawyer for the trial, but she refused to recognize the court's authority and said she rejected all charges.
Hasina said in a written interview with AFP in October that a guilty verdict was "preordained", and that she would "not be surprised when it comes".
High alert
Security forces surrounded the court when the verdict date was set on Thursday, with armored vehicles manning checkpoints.
Dhaka Municipal Police spokesman Talebur Rahman said the force would be on high alert for Monday's verdict, with checkpoints at key intersections across the capital.
Almost half the city's 34,000 police would be on duty, he said.
Interim interior ministry chief Jahangir Alam Chowdhury told reporters the government was prepared and there was no cause for concern.
Crude bombs have been set off across Dhaka this month, mainly petrol bombs hurled at everything from buildings linked to interim leader Muhammad Yunus's government to buses and Christian sites.
Bangladesh's foreign ministry summoned India's envoy to Dhaka this month, demanding that New Delhi block the "notorious fugitive" Hasina from talking to journalists and "granting her a platform to spew hatred".
Ruthless bid to maintain power
She said in October she "mourned all the lives lost during the terrible days" when students were gunned down in the streets.
Her comments enraged many who said she had made a ruthless bid to maintain power at all costs.
Hasina also warned that the ban on her former ruling party, the Awami League, by the interim government was deepening the political crisis in the country of 170 million people before the elections.
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