Dhaka [Bangladesh], November 11: Bangladeshi authorities have rejected a request by exiled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina for a passport and national identity card to return from India, saying she must instead be extradited to face her death sentence.
"Under the passport law, if an accused evades the judicial process or remains a fugitive, no passport can be issued on their behalf," Aminul Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), said in Dhaka on Tuesday. Islam said Hasina could legally return only through extradition under a treaty signed by Bangladesh and India in 2013.
The ICT sentenced Hasina to death in November last year for "crimes against humanity" committed during the student-led mass uprising in 2024 that ended her 15-year rule. Hasina, 79, has lived in India since fleeing Bangladesh aboard a military aircraft on August 5, 2024. According to a UN estimate, the violence surrounding the uprising killed 1,400 people and wounded thousands more.
Source: Qatar Tribune
