Sheikh Hasina requests new passport as she plans December return to Bangladesh
The ousted Bangladeshi prime minister has asked the Bangladeshi embassy in Delhi for a new passport and identity card, signalling a move toward a planned return in December.
Sheikh Hasada, the ousted prime minister of Bangladesh, wrote to the acting high commissioner of Bangladesh in Delhi on Monday requesting a new passport and National Identity Card. The letter, seen by Reuters, said the applications should be processed "expeditiously" based on her Bangladeshi nationality and international human-rights obligations.
Hasida has told Reuters she intends to return to Bangladesh in December to surrender before a court. Her lawyers at Matrix Chambers in London noted that her existing passport and identity card had reportedly been revoked by the interim government.
Bangladesh’s war-crimes court sentenced Hasida to death in absentia last November for ordering a crackdown on a student-led uprising, charges she denies. The Awami League, her party, was banned after her removal, and many of its members remain jailed or in exile.
Spokespersons for the Bangladeshi high commission in Delhi and for Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in Dhaka did not immediately respond to requests for comment.