"Sheikh Hasina Will Have To Go To Jail": Bangladesh Minister On Exiled Ex-PM

Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be jailed if she returns to the country, a state minister said on Monday, amid reports that the ousted PM and leader of the now banned Awami League will return to Dhaka by the end of this year.

In an exclusive email interview with NDTV last month, Hasina said "overcoming every obstacle and every conspiracy, I will return to my country this year."

Sheikh Hasina's government was toppled on 5 August 2024 following large-scale student-led protests, bringing her 20-year rule as prime minister to an end. Hasina fled her home country and has been living in India since then.

Now as she plans to return 'without any fear of death', a state minister has threatened her with jail term.

"If she surrenders, steps will be taken in accordance with the existing law. She will have to go to jail. The law will take its own course," State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam was quoted as saying by the state-run BSS news agency.

"Wherever Sheikh Hasina surrenders, whether in India or Bangladesh, she will have to go to jail first. The government has nothing to consider regarding the statements of a convicted individual," Shama told reporters.

Shama views Hasina's comments as an attempt to encourage Awami League leaders and activists who had gone into hiding or left the country.

"Instead of surrendering, her remarks from abroad appear to be an attempt to encourage Awami League leaders and activists who have either gone into hiding or fled the country. I see no other reason," she added.

Also Read | Bangladeshi Media Told Not To Report Sheikh Hasina's Remarks After NDTV Interview

Last year, on November 17, Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Hasina to death in a case over alleged crimes against humanity. The court found Hasina guilty on three counts, including ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising.

"Sheikh Hasina ordered law enforcement agencies to use drones to locate congregating protesters and helicopters and lethal weapons to kill them," the court said.

Hasina and her aide, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, were declared fugitives and tried in absentia.

Hasina has however called the verdict "part of an illegal, unconstitutional, and politically motivated process."

"The judiciary has been turned into an instrument of political revenge to make the Awami League leaderless," she told NDTV, calling the ban on the Awami League "illegal."

Hasina, the 78-year-old daughter of Bangladesh's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is expecting an arrest on her return. In a telephonic interview with the news agency Reuters, she had said: "They may arrest me on my return, they may even kill me. Still, I have to go."

She expressed her desire to die in her home country, where her family was buried.

"My party leaders and workers are being subjected to tremendous repression. If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and where their blood was shed," she had told Reuters.