In a defiant interview with This Week in Asia just days before the verdict in her trial in absentia, the 78-year-old accused the interim government that replaced her of a politically motivated attack, as well as preparing to hold elections without the “consent” of millions of Bangladeshis who still support her Awami League party.
About 1,400 people died last year as state forces opened fire on student protesters after demonstrations that had begun as a rally against job quotas morphed into a violent uprising that drove Hasina and her government from office.
That ended her long stranglehold on power and forced her to take refuge in India.
Hasina, part of Bangladesh’s complex political history as the daughter of independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, headed the Awami League which dominated for more than a decade and steered the economy’s growth.