Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently in exile, says she plans to return to Bangladesh in December together with senior colleagues from the Awami League and to surrender to authorities. Multiple outlets report that Hasina, 78, faces a death sentence handed down in absentia, and she frames her planned return as a willingness to face arrest and possible violence. In statements cited by several sources, she says she wants to face any punishment “on my own soil,” where her family is buried, and links her position to what she describes as repression against her party leaders and workers.
Her proposed return sets up a potential legal and political confrontation with the government in Dhaka, which has already sentenced her in her absence. The reports describe uncertainty around what will happen when she enters Bangladesh, including whether she will be taken into custody immediately. While the outlets differ only slightly in emphasis, they consistently convey the same central claim: Hasina announces a December return and expresses readiness to be detained or killed.
