Bangladesh Tribunal Sentences Seven Awami League Leaders to Death

Seven senior leaders of Bangladesh's Awami League were sentenced to death on September 15, 2026, for their roles in the crackdown on the student uprising that ended the 15-year rule of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The verdict was handed down by the International Crimes Tribunal-2, a three-member bench headed by Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, and was delivered in the absence of all seven accused. All of them are currently fugitives.

The men sentenced include the Awami League's general secretary, Obaidul Quader, and its joint general secretary, AFM Bahauddin Nasim. Also convicted were former state minister for information and broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat; Jubo League president Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash and its general secretary Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil; and Chhatra League president Saddam Hussain and its general secretary Sheikh Wali Asif Enan. The Chhatra League is the Awami League's student wing, and the Jubo League its youth wing.

The prosecution charged the seven under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 with crimes against humanity, including murder, attempted murder, torture, abetment, incitement and conspiracy. Prosecutors told the court that police and armed cadres of the Awami League and its affiliated groups carried out systematic attacks, killings and torture against students and civilians during the uprising of July and August 2024. The seven leaders, they argued, exercised command and control over those activities or were involved in ordering, inciting or assisting the crimes. Prosecutor Md Aminul Islam said he was "happy with the verdict," as the ANI wire report notes. The bench ruled that the charges had been established and imposed the death penalty.

What led to this verdict

The case traces back to the mass student-led movement of July 2024, which began as protests over government job quotas and grew into a nationwide uprising. The United Nations has said as many as 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 as Hasina's government tried to suppress the demonstrations. Hasina fled the country on August 5, 2024, leaving by helicopter for India, where she has remained since, ending the Awami League's long hold on power.

Hasina herself was sentenced to death by hanging in absentia in November 2025 by the International Crimes Tribunal-1, which found her guilty of crimes against humanity committed during the uprising. Former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal were among those charged alongside her. The September verdict against the seven party leaders adds to the Awami League's legal troubles since the fall of Hasina's government, and it is the latest in a series of tribunal rulings targeting the ousted administration and its network.

Rights groups question the process

The verdict drew swift criticism from rights advocates. State-appointed defence lawyer M Hasan Imam argued that the seven men were not directly involved in the killings and that the tribunal could have imposed a lesser sentence. "They were not directly involved in the killings, they have been convicted due to their fellow activists and supporters," he said.

Justicemakers Bangladesh in France, a France-based human rights organisation, condemned the verdict against the seven Awami League leaders as politically motivated and said it was delivered without internationally recognised standards of due process. The group cited the trial being held in absentia, the defendants' lack of access to counsel of their choice, limited opportunity to challenge the prosecution's evidence and the absence of independent international monitoring. It described the ruling as an example of the judicial system being used as a tool of political revenge.

The tribunal also ordered the confiscation of half the assets of five of the seven men, with the proceeds to be paid as compensation to the families of those killed in the July uprising and to the injured, according to local media reporting.

All seven men remain fugitives. Because the verdicts were delivered in absentia, they remain subject to appeal if the men are arrested or surrender. The ANI wire report and the JMBF statement provide the primary accounts of the verdict and the criticism: read the full ANI wire report on the Bangladesh tribunal verdict, and the rights group's response in the JMBF statement.

For more on shifting power across the region and beyond, see GenZ NewZ's coverage of the Iran rial collapse and the UNIFIL withdrawal from Lebanon.