Presidents, GSs of Awami League, Jubo League and Chhatra League now death-row convicts

Three organisations from the same political family, six top leaders, every one of them has been sentenced to death.

The Awami League, Jubo League and Chhatra League—three organisations that have played significant roles in Bangladesh’s politics for decades—are now facing an unprecedented situation. All six leaders who served as presidents and general secretarys of these organisations have been handed death sentences in cases involving crimes against humanity.

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death on November 17 last year. And today, September 15, 2026, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced the party’s General Secretary Obaidul Quader and four top leaders of the Jubo League and Chhatra League to death.

Those sentenced to death in today’s verdict are Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader; Jubo League Chairman Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash and General Secretary Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil; and Chhatra League President Saddam Hossain and General Secretary Sheikh Wali Asif Enan.

Along with them, Awami League Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim and former State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat were also sentenced to death. All seven accused are absconding.

In other words, from the Awami League president and general secretary to the top two positions of the Jubo League and Chhatra League, all the leadership posts now find themselves in an unprecedented reality: none of the leaders is in prison; rather, all have been sentenced to death and remain at large.

Awami League President Sheikh Hasina is currently in India. She left for India after being ousted from power on August 5, 2024, amid a mass student-led uprising. She was later sentenced to death in absentia in a case involving crimes against humanity.

But the most politically significant chapter of this story may yet remain unwritten.

While staying in India, Sheikh Hasina said in an interview in July 2026 that she planned to return to Bangladesh in December and surrender before the court. Her announcement has triggered fresh discussion within Awami League politics. This is despite the fact that, if she returns, she will have to face the reality of a death sentence already handed down against her.

The political history of the Awami League, Jubo League and Chhatra League, however, cannot be explained solely through the events of July and August 2024.

The Awami League has a long association with Bangladesh’s independence movement, the Liberation War and various democratic movements that followed. Chhatra League has a political legacy stretching from the Language Movement to the Liberation War and the anti-autocracy movement. The Jubo League, too, has been active in politics for decades as an important platform for organising the Awami League’s youth wing.

It is precisely because of this long history that today’s verdict is not merely the judicial fate of a handful of individuals. It also raises major questions about the future of a political organisation and its affiliated bodies.

At the same time, it would neither be reasonable to attribute crimes proven against individual leaders in court to every leader and activist of the organisation, nor would it be appropriate to use an organisation’s historical role as grounds for denying responsibility for crimes established in court.

The tribunal said in its verdict that charges including ordering, instigating and conspiring to commit crimes, as well as failing to prevent such crimes during the suppression of the July-August mass uprising, had been proved beyond reasonable doubt against the accused.

Obaidul Quader and the six others had been charged with crimes against humanity under various provisions of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act.

The biggest question now is where this verdict will lead in practice.

All seven people sentenced to death are absconding. Awami League President Sheikh Hasina is also abroad. As a result, even after the court has delivered its verdict, the next chapter will depend largely on the arrest, extradition and subsequent legal proceedings involving the convicts.

On one hand, the entire top leadership of the three organisations has now been sentenced to death. On the other, party President Sheikh Hasina, while staying in India, has announced that she will return to Bangladesh in December.

This marks an extraordinary new chapter in the political history of the Awami League, Jubo League and Chhatra League—one in which the entire top leadership, from president to general secretary, is now linked to death sentences.

December is the month Sheikh Hasina has announced for her return. Whether that return actually takes place, and what follows if it does, may determine the next page in this chapter of Bangladesh’s political history.