Bangladesh plans to execute its former leader. There’s one big thing in the way

BBC:

She was once cast as a secular heroine, the daughter of a revolutionary leader, whose brutal assassination in the 1970s defined her political ascent.

But Sheikh Hasina’s rise to the top of Bangladesh’s politics preceded a stunning fall from power to self-exile in India.

A death sentence delivered in absentia could now see her executed – if New Delhi decides to send her back.

The ousted leader was found guilty of crimes against humanity for the violent suppression of student protests that toppled her regime in 2024.

She fled to India last August after 15 years of increasingly authoritarian rule, seeking refuge in the capital of one of her closest allies.

Now she’s become a pawn in a tense standoff between the two countries as Dhaka demands her extradition to face justice for crimes that she insists she did not commit.

“She had to flee the country to flee the rage of the people,” said Bangladeshi political scientist Mubashar Hasan. “Hiding in India and handed down a death penalty. It’s quite an extraordinary story.”