Ousted Bangladeshi leader says she will return from exile despite death sentence

The former prime minister said it was her duty to her people to return voluntarily despite facing a death sentence over a bloody crackdown on protesters in 2024.

NEW DELHI — Ousted former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Wednesday that she plans to return to her country from exile in India in December despite facing a death sentence in Bangladesh over a bloody crackdown on protesters in 2024.

In an audio address at an event in New Delhi marking the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled her government, Hasina said it was her duty to her people to return voluntarily despite her conviction in absentia on charges of crimes against humanity.

In a sharp reaction after Hasina’s address, Bangladesh said it was “outraged” by her open engagement with the media in New Delhi, where “she and her henchmen launched venomous vitriol against the State of Bangladesh and her people.”

The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement late Wednesday that the event was detrimental to ties between Bangladesh and India and questioned its timing.

“On a day when the people of Bangladesh are observing the second anniversary of the July Revolution, this interaction by Sheikh Hasina on Indian soil stands as an affront to the sovereignty of Bangladesh and a grievous insult to the martyrs of the July Revolution,” the statement said.