GENEVA - The UN said Nov 17 that former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s sentencing for crimes against humanity marked “an important moment for victims”, but she should not have been sentenced to death.

Hasina, 78, remained in hiding in India during the trial on charges that she ordered a bloody crackdown against a student-led uprising in 2024 that

eventually ousted her

.

She was

sentenced in absentia

to be hanged for crimes against humanity over the crackdown, in which up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations.

The UN rights office, which determined in a report in February that Bangladesh’s former government was behind systematic attacks and killings of protesters that possibly amounted to crimes against humanity, welcomed that verdicts had been reached.

Since publishing the report, “we have been calling for perpetrators -– including individuals in positions of command and leadership -– to be held accountable in accordance with international standards”, rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.

“We have also called for victims to have access to effective remedies and reparation,” she added.

However, she stressed that the office had also “consistently advocated for all accountability proceedings - especially on charges of international crimes - to unquestionably meet international standards of due process and fair trial”.

“This is particularly vital when, as was the case here, the trials have been conducted in absentia and led to a capital pun...