Bangladesh Court sentences ex-PM Sheikh Hasina to 6 months jail for contempt of Court: Reports

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has received her first conviction since her ouster and exile, with a Bangladesh court on Wednesday sentencing her to six months in prison for contempt of court. The verdict was delivered by a three-member bench of the International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT), headed by Chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder. The sentence for Hasina will take effect from the day of her arrest or surrender, a significant legal development for the deposed leader who has been living in exile in India for the past 11 months.

The contempt case against Sheikh Hasina stemmed from a leaked phone call she allegedly made with Shakil Akand Bulbul in October of last year. In the widely reported audio, a voice identified as Hasina purportedly stated, "227 cases have been filed against me, so I have obtained a licence to kill 227 people." The prosecution argued that this statement constituted contempt of court, as it allegedly threatened the judicial process and sought to intimidate individuals involved in ongoing war crimes trials connected to the mass uprising in Bangladesh last year. Alongside Hasina, Shakil Akand Bulbul was also handed a two-month prison term under the same contempt ruling.

This conviction marks the first legal sentence against the former Awami League chief since she was forced out of office in August 2024. Her resignation followed weeks of violent protests led by the Students Against Discrimination (SAD), which escalated from demands for quota reforms into a broader anti-government movement. Following the collapse of her government, Sheikh Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024. Subsequent reports from the United Nations indicated that approximately 1,400 people were killed between mid-July and mid-August during the unrest. Three days after her ouster, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was appointed to lead Bangladesh's interim administration.