Bangladesh's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has condemned the Dhaka court verdict as "biased and politically motivated".
The death penalty is the interim government's way of "nullifying [her party] the Awami League as a political force", she said in a five-page statement released after the verdict, BBC reports.
Hasina, who is in exile in India, had earlier called the trial a "farce" and denied all the charges against her.
"I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly," she said, adding that she had challenged the interim government to bring these charges before the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
She noted that she is "very proud of [her] government's record on human rights and development".
