A Bangladeshi tribunal on Tuesday sentenced an ally of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina to 10 years' imprisonment on charges of committing "crimes against humanity" during the 2024 street protests.
Hasanul Haque Inu, a left-leaning politician, served as a minister in Hasina's coalition government from 2012 to 2018 but had no links to the regime since then.
A 1971 Liberation War veteran and president of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Inu was accused of ordering police to kill six people in his home district, Kushtia, during the 2024 uprising, inciting attacks on protesters and maintaining telephonic links with Hasina, who fled to India in August 2024.
Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) handed down the punishment to Inu as he stood trial in person on eight separate charges.
Other charges included incitement of "use of deadly force" against protesters and direct involvement in decisions for military deployment, curfew imposition and "shoot on sight" orders.
The tribunal's three-judge panel pronounced the verdict as police brought Inu from jail under heavy security.
"We are totally dissatisfied with the verdict. We think he deserved capital punishment. Definitely we will appeal against the judgment (in the Supreme Court)," ICT-BD Chief Prosecutor Aminul Islam said.
Inu's lawyer Sifat Mahmud said his client was "dragged" into the case because of political rivalry.
He said the investigating officer admitted during cross-examination that he had no knowledge of the alleged six killings in Kushtia, which formed one of the charges.
The verdict came two days after the tribunal sentenced three police officers, including Dhaka's former police chief in absentia, to death on charges related to the 2024 protests.
A UN rights office report estimates up to 1,400 deaths during the student-led violent street protests -- spread over July and August 2024, and dubbed as "July Uprising" -- as Hasina's government ordered a security crackdown.
The Muhammad Yunus-led interim government's official count later pegged the death toll at 864.
Hasina's government was toppled on August 5, 2024, and the interim government took over on August 8, disbanding Hasina's Awami League party and exposing dozens of leaders and officials, including the former prime minister, to trial before the ICT-BD.
In November 2025, the ICT-BD sentenced Hasina and the home minister of her cabinet, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, to death after trial in absentia, for crackdown on the protesters.
The ICT-BD was originally set up in 2010 by the Hasina-led government to try hardened collaborators of Pakistani troops during Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War.
The interim government - which was in charge till February this year - amended the ICT-BD law to enable it to try the leaders and officials of the Awami League government on charges of crimes against humanity.
