Hasina Requests New Passport to Return to Bangladesh Despite Death Sentence

Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, has formally asked for a new passport and national identity card so she can return home from India, where she has lived since being driven from power two years ago. Al Jazeera called the request the clearest sign yet that she intends to keep her promise to come back in December, even though a court has sentenced her to death in her absence.

The government in Dhaka has not granted the request. Officials say they are examining whether she has any legal right to the documents, and they continue to demand that India hand her over.

What Hasina and her team say

According to The Associated Press, which saw the letter, Hasina's London-based lawyers at Matrix Chambers emailed Bangladesh's diplomatic mission in New Delhi on Monday. The letter urged the top diplomat there to take the steps needed to issue a passport and an identity card. It asked for the application to be handled "expeditiously" on the basis of her Bangladeshi nationality and under obligations arising from international human rights instruments.

Abu Obaidha Arin, an aide to Hasina, told the AP the step was a significant move toward her homecoming. He said her documents had been revoked by the previous regime and that she wants to reclaim her rights as a citizen. He said she is determined to return by December.

Hasina told the AP last week she wants to return at any cost, saying she would rather die "on the soil of my own country." She also told Reuters she intends to surrender before a court in Bangladesh, and her aides said the date would be announced once various formalities are completed, Al Jazeera reported. She denies wrongdoing, rejects the verdict against her and disputes the legitimacy of the trial, according to the AP.

What the government says

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said the foreign and law ministries are studying the matter, including whether there is any legal basis for the applications and whether Hasina is entitled to apply, according to the Dhaka-based New Age daily. The AP noted the government had earlier dismissed suggestions that she needed new identification documents to come home.

Last week, Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir told reporters in Dhaka that Bangladesh wants her handed over under an extradition treaty with India, which he said remains active. He described her as a fugitive and said she would be handed over. India has declined to do so.

How Hasina came to be in exile

Student-led protests forced Hasina from power on Aug. 5, 2024, and Bangladesh's military sent her to India, the AP reported. Al Jazeera said the movement began after the Supreme Court restored a job quota system that favored descendants of the country's liberation activists.

A special tribunal sentenced her in absentia in 2025 for crimes against humanity, finding she ordered the crackdown on protesters. The United Nations has said nearly 1,400 people were killed, according to the AP; Al Jazeera cited U.N. estimates of as many as 1,400 deaths.

Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's founder and first president. She served as prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2009 to 2024. An interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus ran the country after her fall and held an election in February. Hasina's Awami League party was barred from contesting it, and Tarique Rahman, the son of a longtime rival of Hasina, won in a landslide, according to the AP.

What's at stake for Bangladesh

Al Jazeera said Hasina's possible return raises the prospect of fresh legal and political disputes. She still has support among parts of the population, and her arrival could complicate the government's efforts to stabilize the country and its economy after two years of disruption.

For ordinary Bangladeshis, the outcome could shape how stable the political climate is in the coming weeks. For the two governments, it tests the extradition treaty that Dhaka says is in force and that India has so far not acted on.

What happens next

The foreign and law ministries are still reviewing the passport request. Hasina's aides say a return date will be announced after formalities are finished, and she has said she aims to be back in December. Reports do not say whether India will change its position on extradition.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by Al Jazeera, ABC News