Bangladesh’s deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told AFP she was determined to return to her country by December despite fearing for her life.

“I may be killed. I may be arrested. I may be sent to prison,” Hasina (78) said in an email response to questions by AFP.

“I am fully aware of my fate. Still, I want to go back because my people are calling me.”

Last November, Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia by a special tribunal in Dhaka for alleged “crimes against humanity” over her government’s brutal crackdown on student-led protests in 2024.

Hasina has dismissed the death penalty, criminal convictions and charges against her as “politically motivated”.

Since the verdict, Dhaka has been urging New Delhi to extradite her to face the law.

(With inputs from AFP and PTI)

Bangladesh’s fugitive former leader Sheikh Hasina has vowed to return to her country “this year”, according to an interview published on Sunday (June 28, 2026), months after she was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity.

Hasina, 78, fled to neighbouring India in August 2024 after a student-led uprising ended her 15-year, iron-fisted rule.

She has not been seen in public since, except for a rare speech broadcast to a packed press club in New Delhi in January.

In an interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV, Hasina said she was not afraid of death and that the verdict against her was “part of an illegal, unconstitutional and politically motivated process”.

“Many conspiracies have been hatched against me. But breaking through every web of conspiracy… I was elected prime minister five times by the people’s vote and worked for the country’s unprecedented development,” Hasina said.

“I want to say clearly: overcoming every obstacle and every conspiracy, I will return to my country this year,” she added in response to a question on whether she would return despite the death penalty verdict.

Last November, Hasina was found guilty by a Dhaka court of incitement, order to kill and inaction to prevent atrocities, and sentenced to be hanged.

The activities of her former ruling Awami League, once one of the country’s most popular, have been outlawed.

Ties between India and Bangladesh have improved since Prime Minister Tarique Rahman won a landslide election victory in the South Asian nation of 170 million people in February.

But frictions remain, with Bangladesh repeatedly demanding the extradition of Hasina.