Bangladesh’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death

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A Bangladesh court sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to be hanged for crimes against humanity on Monday, with cheers breaking out in the packed court as the judge read out the verdict. Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her. The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national television, came less than three months before the first polls in the South Asian country of 170 million people since her overthrow in August 2024. “All the… elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled,” judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the court in Dhaka. The former leader was found guilty on three counts: incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities, the judge said. “We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence — that is, sentence of death.” Crowds waved the national fl...
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Thailand’s prime minister removed from office over leaked phone call scandal with Cambodian strongman

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Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed Paetongtarn Shinawatra from her position as prime minister, ruling that as the country’s leader she violated constitutional rules on ethics in a phone call with Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen.

The ruling means she immediately loses her job, which she had held for about a year. Paetongtarn was suspended from her duties on July 1 when the court agreed to hear the case against her, and Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai took over her responsibilities.

Paetongtarn’s leaked June 15 call with Hun Sen was aimed at easing tensions over competing claims to territory along their border, but sparked outrage in Thailand because Paetongtarn seemed overly friendly in discussing a matter of national security and appeared to malign a Thai army general.

Audio of the call was leaked online by Hun Sen, who was Cambodia’s prime minister for 38 years until his son Hun Manet took over the job in 2023. The phone call came as long-standing tensions over the border heightened after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a brief incident of violence in disputed territory in May. In late June, the two countries engaged in five days of combat that killed dozens of people and displaced more than 260,000.

The court’s ruling puts the ruling coalition led by Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai party on shaky ground. Controversy over the phone call caused the Bhumjaithai Party, the biggest partner of Pheu Thai, to drop out, leaving the coalition with a slim majority of seats in the House of Representatives.

It is also a blow to the political machine of Paetongtarn’s father, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from power by a 2006 military coup but has managed to remain a dominant force in Thai politics, chiefly by supporting proxy parties such as Pheu Thai. His political strength comes from the populist policies he espoused and the vast fortune he earned in the telecommunications sector.

SOURCE: Associated Press AND AGENCIES



from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/xrNBI1n

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