Sheikh Hasina, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, has been found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death.
The former interior minister and police chief were also convicted.
A special tribunal found them guilty of authorizing the use of deadly force against protesters in 2024, as well as failing to prevent crimes against them.
During weeks of student-led protests, up to 1.400 people were killed in clashes with security forces, the United Nations (UN) estimates.
Hasina was tried in absentia because she is in exile in India, where she has lived since she was forced to step down from power.
She "categorically" denied accusations that she personally ordered security forces to shoot at protesters.
"I don't deny that the situation got out of control and that many lives were lost unnecessarily."
"But I never gave any order to shoot at unarmed civilians," she said in written responses to the BBC a few days before the verdict.
She called the trial in absentia a "farce" orchestrated by a "kangaroo court" controlled by political opponents.
Thousands of people have been protesting across Bangladesh for days in the summer of 2024, demanding the resignation of Sheikha Hasani.
Their main demand was to abolish quotas for employment in civil services, and the students called on residents not to pay taxes and utility bills, as well as to start a general strike in the country.
Hasani resigned and left the country, and has been living in India ever since, while an agreement was reached in Bangladesh on an interim government.
Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and long-time political opponent of Hasina, was appointed as the country's interim leader and has somewhat stabilized the economy in recent months.
Quotas have been reduced, but Bangladesh, one of the world's largest garment producers, needs more foreign investment to repair its fragile financial situation.
This is not possible while there is political instability.
See what it was like on the streets of Bangladesh in the summer of 2024
Ahead of the verdict, on November 17, hundreds of people marched from a college in Dhaka to the former residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of former Prime Minister Hasani.
The residence, currently abandoned, has been the target of attacks and set on fire several times since Hasani resigned.
The protesters chanted "Destroy the dens of fascism" and transported two bulldozers in trucks, while armed police officers tried to stop them.
Only former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun was present at the verdict, because in addition to Hasini, the defendant Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the former interior minister, is also at large.
Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun pleaded guilty in July to participating in the 2024 uprising and testified as a state witness.
The court read out all the charges, which include, among others, murder, attempted murder, torture and ordering the use of deadly weapons against protesters.
Prosecutors have demanded that Hasina be executed if found guilty, while her state-appointed lawyer has argued that police were forced to open fire in response to violent actions by protesters.
This ruling could put pressure on India to extradite Hasina, but the likelihood of that happening is slim.
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