Sheikh Hasina has asked Bangladesh to issue her a new passport and national identity card so she can return from exile in India in December, the clearest indication yet that the former prime minister intends to come back and surrender. The request comes a year after a special tribunal sentenced her to death in her absence for crimes against humanity.
Lawyers at London-based Matrix Chambers made the request in a letter dated Monday 9 November to Preeti Rahman, Bangladesh’s acting high commissioner in Delhi. They asked for the documents to be issued expeditiously, arguing that Hasina’s Bangladeshi nationality entitles her to them.
Hasina’s passport and identity card were revoked after she fled to India on 5 August 2024, following the student-led uprising that ended her rule. Her aides say she plans to return in December, but that a date will be announced only once the formalities are complete.
Documents sought before return
The letter turns Hasina’s stated intention to return into a request for the documents she says she needs to do so. It does not, however, establish an agreed date for her arrival or resolve the dispute between her lawyers and Bangladesh’s government over whether new documents are necessary.
Her lawyers’ argument rests on her nationality. Bangladesh’s government has dismissed suggestions that she needs a replacement passport and identity card, while continuing to seek her handover by India under the countries’ extradition treaty.
The request therefore presents two different approaches to bringing Hasina back to Bangladesh: the voluntary return she has proposed and the extradition sought by the government. India has declined to hand her over, and no confirmed return date has been announced.
Hasina has said she intends to surrender before a court. That intention remains distinct from a completed arrangement for her return, with her aides making clear that the announcement of a date depends on the formalities being settled.
Death sentence over the 2024 crackdown
A special tribunal sentenced Hasina to death in absentia in November 2025 for crimes against humanity, finding her responsible for ordering the crackdown on the student-led uprising. The United Nations says nearly 1,400 people were killed in the crackdown.
Hasina denies wrongdoing and has challenged the tribunal’s legitimacy. Her proposed surrender would bring the former leader back to the country where she has been convicted, but her request for travel and identity documents does not settle her challenge to the proceedings.
The death sentence gives the planned return consequences far beyond the issuing of a passport. Hasina would be returning as a former prime minister convicted in her absence, rather than simply ending a period of exile. Her denial and the tribunal’s judgment remain central to the dispute.
A return would also test whether Bangladesh’s courts can hold a former leader to account without renewed street violence. That is a risk surrounding the proposal, not an established outcome, and the government is wary of the disruption her arrival could cause.
Extradition dispute with India
India has sheltered Hasina since she left Bangladesh in August 2024. Bangladesh wants her extradited under its treaty with India, but Delhi has declined to hand her over. Her proposal to return voluntarily offers a different route from the one Dhaka has pursued.
A completed voluntary return could remove the immediate need for an extradition handover. For now, however, the document request alone does not resolve the diplomatic dispute or confirm how Hasina would leave India and enter Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s junior foreign minister, Humaiun Kobir, has called Hasina a terrorist and a fugitive. Those descriptions reflect the government’s position towards the ousted leader, who denies wrongdoing and disputes the legitimacy of the tribunal that sentenced her.
The government’s dismissal of the need for replacement documents also leaves a practical disagreement unresolved. Hasina’s lawyers are asking the country’s diplomatic representative in Delhi to issue them, while the authorities continue to call for her extradition.
December plan without a confirmed date
Hasina’s Awami League is banned. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman took power after a February election that the party was barred from contesting, leaving her proposed return to unfold in a political system from which her party has been excluded.
The next stated step is completion of the formalities, followed by an announcement from her aides of the return date. December remains the intended month, rather than a confirmed arrival schedule. The passport and identity card request is the clearest signal so far of her intention, but it is not confirmation that the arrangements are in place.
