Sheikh Hasina applies for a passport and vows to return to Bangladesh in December despite her death sentence

Sheikh Hasina applies for a passport and vows to return to Bangladesh in December despite her death sentence.

Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is preparing to return home from exile in India as soon as December, despite a death sentence handed down in absentia, according to exiled leaders of her Awami League party who spoke to The Guardian. Al Jazeera also examined the prospect of her return this week.

A British lawyer acting for Hasina wrote on Monday to Bangladesh's high commission in New Delhi requesting a new passport and national identity card, The Guardian reported, citing a letter it had seen. A party leader in Kolkata said that if no passport is issued, Hasina would seek a travel pass instead.

Hasina fled to India in August 2024 after a mass uprising ended her 15 years in power. Last November, a Bangladeshi tribunal convicted her of crimes against humanity over the crackdown on student protesters in which an estimated 1,400 people died, and sentenced her to death. She rejects the charges and calls the tribunal illegitimate.

Bangladesh's government says Hasina could only come back through a prisoner exchange under its extradition treaty with India, and the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Aminul Islam, said there was "no legal scope" to issue her a passport. He added that with her appeal deadline passed, she would face execution of the verdict, according to The Guardian.

Hasina told The Associated Press this week: "If death is my destiny, I would rather die on the soil of my own country, among my own people."

Analysts quoted by The Guardian said the move appears aimed at reviving her party's base and unsettling the government of Tarique Rahman, elected in February, which has struggled with inflation and garment-sector protests. The Awami League remains banned, and thousands of its members are in jail.