Bangladesh's ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed to return to her country and face the court despite the risk of imprisonment or execution, while rejecting her conviction over the deadly crackdown on student-led protests in 2024, calling it 'politically motivated'.

Sheikh Hasina, 78, said in a recent written interview with Japan's Kyodo News: 'I will return to Bangladesh. I will appear in court,' without specifying which court.

She continued: 'They may send me to prison. They may even try to hang me. I am aware of those risks.'

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (file photo)

Hasina has been living in India after resigning and fleeing Bangladesh in August 2024 amid protests triggered by a court ruling on the civil service job quota system. She was tried in absentia and sentenced to death by a 'war crimes' court in November 2025 on charges of committing 'crimes against humanity' related to the crackdown.

She said: 'If independent foreign forensic experts examine how each person died (during the unrest), and the weapons or bullets that caused it, the truth can still be uncovered.' Hasina stressed that 'a stable Bangladesh matters not only for Bangladesh, but is important for South Asia, the Bay of Bengal, development partners, and countries like Japan that have invested trust, resources, and friendship in our development journey.'

Opponents of Sheikh Hasina clash with police after her death sentence in Dhaka (file photo - Reuters)

Speaking about the future, she affirmed that 'the country needs to recover. But reconciliation cannot mean impunity,' adding that 'those responsible for crimes must face due legal process.'

She concluded: 'The next decade can be a decade of recovery and renewal, but only if democracy is restored and the people are allowed to decide their own future.'