Current Law Minister M Asaduzzaman on Thursday said that former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be arrested the moment she sets the foot in the country upon her return from India.
The remarks comes a day after Hasina told a news agency that she was determined to return to her country by December even though she feared her life. “I may be killed. I may be arrested. I may be sent to prison … I am fully aware of my fate. Still, I want to go back because my people are calling me,” she was quoted as saying.
Reiterating that Hasina, who was sentenced to death in November 2025, may not even get a chance to surrender to the court before getting arrested. The former Prime Minister in exile, last month told in an interview that she was determined to return to Bangladesh. He added that the path to the return may not be easy for the 78-year-old. He warned that the “law will take its own course and we will do nothing violating the law”.
“Despite being a death penalty convict, being a Bangladeshi citizen, if she intends to surrender showing respect to the law by returning home, perhaps she will be arrested before she could do so,” the minister told reporters.
“We will exercise the authority that the law has given us”.Sheikh Hasina has been living in exile in India since 2024, after her government was toppled during the violent student-led protests in Bangladesh. A year later, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced her to death, in absentia, convicting the leader of crimes against humanity for her role in the crackdown on student-protesters.
She has described the judgment as “political vengeance dressed up as law”. International human rights watchdogs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called the proceedings “flawed”, while the UN human rights office has questioned its fairness.