Sri Lanka, Nov. 17 -- Bangladesh's deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death in abstentia by a court in Dhaka for crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.

A three-judge bench of the country's international crimes tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes including murder, extermination, torture and other inhumane acts, carried out as she ordered a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year.

Reading the verdict to the court, Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder said the "accused prime minister committed crimes against humanity by her order to use drones, helicopters and lethal weapons".

Hasina had pleaded not guilty to the charges and alleged the tribunal was a "politically m...