DHAKA (The Thursday Times) — Bangladesh has completed every legal step needed to bring back former prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India, its law minister said on Saturday, leaving the decision on whether to hand her over with New Delhi.
“We have completed everything required from our side as part of the legal process. What they [India] will do is up to them,” Law Minister Md Asaduzzaman told reporters after an event in Dhaka. Hasina would return “through legal means”, he said, and her extradition under the treaty between the two countries would itself be a legal process.
Hasina, 79, fled to India on August 5, 2024, after a student-led uprising toppled her government. In November 2025, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, trying her in absentia, sentenced her to death on one charge and to life imprisonment on another over the deadly crackdown on the protests. She has rejected the charges and the proceedings.
No route to appeal, minister says
Asked whether Hasina would be able to challenge her sentence, Asaduzzaman said the Appellate Division had no power to excuse late appeals in crimes against humanity cases, because the special law under which she was tried did not allow it.
He also cited Article 47(3) of the constitution, added in 1973 under the government of Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which bars anyone accused or convicted of crimes against humanity from claiming fundamental rights. “They themselves enacted that law,” he said.
Asked whether India had discussed sending Hasina to a third country, the minister said only the Indian government could answer that question.
Delhi calls it a legal matter
India has acknowledged receiving Bangladesh’s extradition requests but has not said whether it will act on them. On Friday, Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said Hasina’s extradition was a legal matter that would be dealt with accordingly, and that India wanted “a positive, constructive and forward-looking relationship with Bangladesh”.
Jaiswal did not answer directly when asked about reports this week that New Delhi wanted Dhaka to send a military aircraft to collect Hasina, to let her appeal against the death sentence, and to retry her over the 2024 crackdown.
Hasina said in August that she intended to return to Bangladesh in December. Dhaka’s demand for her return has continued under the elected government of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, which took office in February when the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus handed over power.
Relations between the neighbours remain tense. Earlier this week, Bangladeshi police filed a spying case against an Indian national over alleged links to India’s foreign intelligence agency.
