A special Bangladeshi tribunal on Thursday sentenced two former policemen to death for their role in the killing of a university student in 2024. The incident triggered street protests that eventually toppled the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) sentenced assistant sub-inspector Amir Hossain and constable Sujan Chandra Roy Abu in the crimes against humanity case for killing Abu Sayeed on the state-run Rangpur University campus on July 16, 2024.

Three other former policemen were given life imprisonment, and 25 others, including the university’s vice chancellor, were sentenced to various prison terms.

Sayeed, 23, appeared in videos and photos taken hours before his death, standing with his arms spread wide in a gesture challenging the police. “They will be hanged by neck until their death,” ICT-BD chair Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury said.

The convicts include Rangpur’s former police commissioner, police officers, university teachers, officials, doctors, and student activists from the now-disbanded Awami League student wing.

The two policemen sentenced to death are in jail. Three officers who received life terms are on the run, along with most other convicts. Only six convicts faced trial in person.

Defence lawyer Azizur Rahman said, “no sign of bullet shots” was found on Sayeed’s body or clothes at the time of his death.

"Abu Sayeed sacrificed his life to free the country from autocratic rule (and) 30 people were convicted,” chief prosecutor Aminul Islam told reporters.

He added that the tribunal had heard witness statements and completed the trial before his appointment as ICT-BD chief prosecutor.

The ICT law, originally enacted to try collaborators of Pakistani troops during the 1971 Liberation War, allows convicts tried in person to challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.

The tribunal sentenced Hasina to death on November 17 last year, finding her guilty of incitement, instigation, and ordering the killing of 1,400 people during the July Uprising, a student-led street protest that toppled her government on August 5, 2024.

Hasina fled to India after her government was overthrown and faces charges of “crimes against humanity” to suppress the protests.