A Bangladesh court convicted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina of crimes against humanity on Monday, sentencing the deposed leader to death for ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.

The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh's domestic war crimes court located in the capital Dhaka, delivered the guilty verdict amid tight security and in Hasina’s absence after she fled to India in August 2024.

The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national television, comes ahead of the first polls since her overthrow in August 2024.

"All the... elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled," judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the packed court in Dhaka.

The former PM slammed the verdict as"biased and politically motivated", adding in a statement:"I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed and tested fairly".

The verdict can be appealed in the Supreme Court.

But Hasina's son and adviser, Sajeeb Wazed, said on the eve of the verdict that they would not appeal unless a democratically elected government took office with the participation of Hasina's Awami League.

The Awami League party has been barred from contesting February elections and it is feared that Monday's verdict could stoke fresh unrest ahead of the vote.

Worst violence since 1971

During the trial, prosecutors told the court that they had uncovered evidence of her direct command to use lethal force to suppress a student-led uprising in July and August 2024.

According to a United Nations report, up to 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests between July 15 and August 5, 2024, with thousands more injured – most of them by gunfire from security forces – in what was the worst violence in Bangladesh since its 1971 war of independence.

Hasina was represented by a state-appointed defence counsel who told the court that the charges against her were baseless and pleaded for her acquittal.

Ahead of the verdict, Hasina dismissed the accusations and the fairness of the Tribunal proceedings, asserting a guilty verdict was"a foregone conclusion".

Bangladesh has been tense ahead of the verdict, with at least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles torched across the country over the past few days. There have been no casualties, however.