Sheikh Hasina Vows to Return This Year Despite Death Sentence

Exiled former PM dismisses conviction as politically motivated and pledges to overcome every obstacle to come home.

Ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has declared she will return to Bangladesh before the end of this year the first time she has set a timeframe since fleeing the country in August 2024 following a student-led uprising that toppled her government.

Speaking to Indian broadcaster NDTV from exile in India, Hasina, 78, said she would overcome "every obstacle and every conspiracy" to return home — even in the face of a death sentence handed down by a Dhaka court last November. The court convicted her of inciting killings and failing to stop atrocities during the deadly unrest of 2024.

Hasina flatly rejected the verdict, calling it "illegal, unconstitutional and politically motivated." She accused Bangladesh's judiciary of being used as a tool to eliminate her Awami League party's leadership. "I do not fear death," she said.

She insisted her return was not about personal ambition but about restoring democracy, the rule of law, and the spirit of the 1971 Liberation War. She also called on Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's government which took office after February 2026 elections to lift the ban on Awami League activities, drop what she called false cases against party leaders, and release political prisoners.

The Awami League has been barred from political activity since the previous interim administration imposed restrictions, a ban the current government has kept in place. Authorities have defended the legal proceedings as part of accountability efforts for crimes allegedly committed in the final months of Hasina's rule.

"The Awami League is not a paper organisation," Hasina said, "but a political force rooted in the soil, people, history and identity of Bengal."