DHAKA: Bangladesh’s chief prosecutor has warned that ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina will face execution if she returns to the country, saying the 79 year old leader has exhausted every legal avenue to challenge her death sentence.
Md Aminul Islam, chief prosecutor at the International Crimes Tribunal, made the statement on Tuesday amid reports that Hasina, who has lived in exile in neighbouring India since August 2024, plans to return to Bangladesh in December. “Sheikh Hasina has no option but to face the execution of the verdict,” he told reporters in Dhaka.
Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia last November for crimes against humanity over her government’s crackdown on the student-led mass uprising that ended her 15 year rule. The tribunal found her guilty of incitement, ordering killings and failing to prevent atrocities during the 2024 protests.
The prosecutor said Hasina missed the 30-day window to appeal after the verdict was published. “The statutory appeal period has expired, and no appeal can now be filed,” Islam said, adding that she should have returned during the trial or appealed within the legal deadline.
Dhaka has also ruled out issuing Hasina a new passport or travel document. Islam said Bangladeshi law bars authorities from providing travel papers to a convicted fugitive sentenced for crimes involving moral turpitude, and said her passport had already been cancelled.
Instead, he said, Hasina must formally request her return through the India-Bangladesh extradition treaty. Bangladesh has previously sent an extradition request to New Delhi, which said last month that it was reviewing the matter.
Hasina’s lawyers in London have reportedly approached Bangladeshi missions seeking a new passport and national identity card. The prosecutor said no such request had come directly from Hasina and questioned her stated intention to return.
Once celebrated for presiding over rapid economic growth and helping transform Bangladesh into a major garment-manufacturing hub, Hasina now leaves behind a deeply divided political legacy. Critics accuse her former government of jailing opponents, restricting press freedom and overseeing serious human rights abuses.
Her possible return would mark one of the most dramatic chapters in Bangladesh’s recent political history; a former prime minister, once the country’s most powerful leader, returning not to reclaim office but to confront a death sentence.
