‘Let them issue a verdict. I do not care,’ Hasina tells supporters ahead of ICT judgment
'I will work for the welfare of people again, and I will do justice on Bangladesh's soil,' says Sheikh Hasina.
Ahead of the International Crimes Tribunal's (ICT) verdicts in a crimes against humanity case against her, ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said that she does not care about the judgment.
"Let them issue a verdict. I do not care. Allah gave me life, Allah will take it, but I will keep working for the people of my country," Hasina said in an audio message sent to Awami League supporters, reported NDTV today (17 November).
"I have lost my parents, my siblings, and they burnt down my home," she said.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Telling her supporters not to worry, she said, "I am alive, I will stay alive, I will work for the welfare of people again, and I will do justice on Bangladesh's soil."
Hasina fled the country to India in the face of a student-led mass uprising on 5 August last year and has been there ever since.
She has recently given emailed interviews to international media in the days leading up to today's verdict announcement, repeatedly refusing to apologise for a deadly crackdown on protesters during the uprising and showing no remorse for the killings.
The Awami League president, who is charged with personally ordering security forces to fire at protesters in the weeks before she fled, also denied all allegations "categorically".
"I'm not denying that the situation got out of control, nor that many lives were lost needlessly. But I never issued any order to fire on unarmed civilians," she said in written answers to emailed questions from the BBC.
However, leaked audio of one of her phone calls, verified by BBC Eye earlier this year, suggested that she had authorised the use of "lethal weapons" in July 2024. The audio was played in court during the trial.
