Sheikh Hasina, exiled party leaders may return to Bangladesh in Dec

Exiled former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina says she will return from India in December to surrender despite facing a death sentence, saying she wants to face her fate on home soil

Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina, facing a death sentence back home, has said she and senior party colleagues plan to return from exile in India around December and surrender. The South Asian nation’s longest-serving leader said she and members of her Awami League aim to return voluntarily to the country they fled two years ago and present themselves in court, testing Bangladesh’s handling of its most prominent political opponent. “They may arrest me on my return, they may even kill me,” Hasina, 78, said in the nearly hour-long telephone interview to Reuters late on Thursday and into Friday. “Still, I have to go,” she said. “My party leaders and workers are being subjected to tremendous repression. If death comes, I want it to come on my own soil, where my parents are buried and where their blood was shed.” A return could sharpen political divisions in the garment-export powerhouse as the government in Dhaka seeks to restore stability ??after two years of upheaval.