A prosecutor at Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal has said ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina would have no way of avoiding her death sentence if she goes back to the country, as she presses for travel documents to return in December.
“Sheikh Hasina has no option but to face the execution of the verdict,” prosecutor Md Aminul Islam said, according to Al Jazeera. Hiru News, reporting the same remarks, described him as the tribunal’s chief prosecutor.
The passport request
Hasina, 79, was sentenced to death in absentia last year over a deadly crackdown on student-led protests in 2024. She fled to India in August 2024 and has remained there since.
Al Jazeera reports that she approached the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi seeking a new passport and a national identity card, her existing documents having been revoked. Dhaka rejected the request, with State Minister Humaiun Kobir saying the country “does not give passports to terrorists.”
Both filings link the prosecutor’s warning directly to that application. Hiru’s account adds that Hasina had earlier pledged to return next month, more than two years after leaving the country.
Context
Hasina’s conviction by the Dhaka tribunal was handed down on 17 November 2025, reported at the time by Al Jazeera. This desk’s August coverage of Bangladesh’s extradition request to India noted that Delhi described the request as “under examination” — a position that has not publicly changed.
Not reported
Neither filing says whether India would permit Hasina to travel, whether any appeal against the sentence remains open, or what legal route she could use to enter Bangladesh without a valid passport.
