Sentenced to death ex-leader vows to return

 

TT-AFP

 

Published 20.11

  

Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, here in a picture from March 2024. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country in 2024. Despite being sentenced to death in her homeland, she now says it is her duty to return.

Sheikh Hasina was deposed in August 2024 in a popular uprising and fled the same day to India, where the 78-year-old is still living.

Last year, she was sentenced to death in her absence for crimes against humanity, but says she still wants to return. In a recorded speech on the anniversary of her exile, she says that "fear cannot determine my duty to the people" and that she will return in December.

- I know they can put me in prison, or maybe kill me, anything can happen, but I still have to go back.

According to the UN, up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Sheikh Hasina tried to hold on to power.