Ex-leader Hasina gambles on return to Bangladesh despite death penalty

Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed to return to her country in December, despite facing the death penalty there for crimes against humanity.

Hasina, who denies the charges, was tried in absentia after fleeing to India during an anti-government uprising in 2024.

On the second anniversary of being ousted, Hasina said in an audio broadcast to a crowded press club in Delhi that she "had to go back", but wouldn't announce her exact plans or dates yet.

Her Awami League party has been falling apart and Indian officials have been facing pressure to extradite her after a special tribunal in Dhaka sentenced her to death last year for ordering lethal force to be used on protesters.

Hasina's virtual meeting with reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Delhi was her first meeting with the media since she was toppled after 15 years in power.

She delivered a speech over an audio link and then took a handful of questions.

"I know that they may put me in jail or they may kill me, anything may happen, but still I have to go back," she said.

In the address she alleged that several organisations had turned the 2024 student protests into a "violent movement", without providing any evidence.

She has always rejected the charges on which she was convicted as politically motivated. But UN investigators found evidence that she and her government tried to cling to power using systematic, deadly violence.

In audio of one phone call verified by BBC Eye, Hasina was heard authorising the deadly crackdown on demonstrators. Prosecutors used the recording as crucial evidence in convicting her.

The UN estimates up to 1,400 people were killed, most by gunfire from security forces, during the protests, which started as a student-led movement against quotas in government jobs and turned into a mass uprising.

The 78-year-old fled Dhaka as tens of thousands of demonstrators held protests and stormed government buildings, including her official residence, plunging the country of more than 170 million into crisis.

Soon after she was toppled, an interim government took charge. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party came to power after elections in February this year, with its leader Tarique Rahman now prime minister.

His government had already warned local mediase not to publish or broadcast Hasina's comments. After her address, it said it was "outraged" India had allowed her to take part in a public meeting with the media.

"Our people have firmly resolved that our nation will never again go back to the dark days of fascism and that Bangladesh will never be a client state," a foreign ministry statement said.

Hasina's presence in Delhi has strained relations with Bangladesh, which wants her extradited, a request India says it's examining.

A return by Hasina to Dhaka, if it happens, is likely to have repercussions, including political unrest.

"It's a huge risk for her personally. If she does go back to Bangladesh, she will immediately be arrested," says David Bergman, an analyst based in Dhaka.

It's likely that supporters of the ruling BNP, as well as the party of the students, the National Citizens Party, Islamists and others could hold rallies demanding that her sentence be carried out.

But the stakes are also high for the Awami League, if she does not return.

The activities of the party were banned soon after she fled the country and it was not allowed to contest the February general election.

Awami League leaders allege that hundreds of supporters have been killed in mob violence and dozens have died in the custody of security forces. Dhaka officials reject accusations that Awami League supporters are being systematically targeted.

"If Ms Hasina doesn't go back, the violence will continue and they will exterminate the Awami League," Mohammad Ali Arafat, a former minister in Ms Hasina's cabinet, who is also overseas, told the BBC.

There has been growing discontent among a section of her party that many top leaders had fled the country while leaving mid-level leaders and supporters vulnerable to attacks.

"It must be to do with the recognition that if Ms Hasina is going to have any relevance to Bangladesh politics in the future, she's got to go back to Bangladesh and face it," David Bergman says.