{"text":[[{"start":10.06,"text":"Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed to return to Bangladesh this year, shrugging off a death sentence imposed on her after she fled into exile when her government was toppled by a student-led uprising in 2024."}],[{"start":25.56,"text":"“I may be detained, I may be sent to prison, they may try to enforce the verdict issued in fabricated cases, but fear cannot decide my duty to the people,” Sheikh Hasina said in an audio address to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi on Wednesday."}],[{"start":43.19,"text":"“Bangladesh people suffered a lot, and I cannot take it. And that’s why I decided to go back,” she said, adding she aimed to do so in December."}],[{"start":50.927,"text":"Any return by Sheikh Hasina would be a political test for the new government led by Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which won a landslide victory in a general election in February."}],[{"start":62.95,"text":"Since the 78-year-old former leader signalled in late June her determination to return, authorities in Dhaka have vowed to arrest her if she sets foot on Bangladeshi soil."}],[{"start":73.52,"text":"“We will exercise the authority that the law has given us,” law minister Md Asaduzzaman told reporters last week."}],[{"start":81.84,"text":"In her audio address, during which her voice often broke, Sheikh Hasina demanded that “judicial independence must be guaranteed” in Bangladesh. Her advisers said it was her “personal decision” not to appear live on video as doing so could be too politically sensitive."}],[{"start":100.08,"text":"Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said the country was “outraged” that India had allowed Sheikh Hasina to “engage in a live interaction with the media”."}],[{"start":107.405,"text":"Sheikh Hasina ruled Bangladesh for 15 years before the student-led revolt overthrew her in August 2024. A caretaker administration led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus initiated judicial procedures against her."}],[{"start":124.32,"text":"Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal last year sentenced her to death in absentia for crimes against humanity related to her role in a deadly crackdown during the uprising that eventually toppled her government."}],[{"start":135.36,"text":"According to the UN, as many as 1,400 people were killed in the 2024 uprising, most by security forces."}],[{"start":141.28,"text":"“There are reasonable grounds to believe hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture were carried out with the knowledge, co-ordination and direction of the political leadership,” UN human rights chief Volker Türk said in February."}],[{"start":157.602,"text":"Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly denied responsibility and has denounced her conviction as “biased and politically motivated”."}],[{"start":165.314,"text":"Human Rights Watch said last week the Bangladesh crimes tribunal had been failing to uphold international legal standards in proceedings against politicians, members of security forces and journalists accused of human rights violations under Sheikh Hasina’s regime."}],[{"start":180.117,"text":"“Bangladesh needs to urgently reform its criminal justice system, and the new government should ensure that there is no room for political vendettas through shoddy investigations and arbitrary allegations,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the rights group’s deputy Asia director."}],[{"start":195.49,"text":"Dhaka has been requesting Sheikh Hasina’s extradition from India, but to no avail, straining relations between the neighbours, according to senior Bangladeshi diplomats."}],[{"start":205.809,"text":"Shama Obaed Islam, Bangladesh’s state minister for foreign affairs, said the country had repeatedly conveyed concerns to New Delhi over Sheikh Hasina and other leaders of her Awami League party making political statements from Indian soil."}],[{"start":218.702,"text":"“Allowing her the opportunity to openly interact with the media under any pretext is deeply hurtful to our people’s sentiment and detrimental to the development of harmonious bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India,” the foreign ministry said on Wednesday."}],[{"start":233.68,"text":"The BNP government warned Bangladeshi media this week that publicising Sheikh Hasina’s planned speech would violate a December 2024 order by the International Crimes Tribunal prohibiting media outlets and social media platforms from publishing or broadcasting her statements."}],[{"start":249.884,"text":"Mohammad Ali Arafat, a senior figure in the Awami League, said the BNP government was trying to prevent her from speaking out. “That only reveals the BNP’s attitude towards opposition voices and freedom of speech,” he said."}],[{"start":266.08,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1785993907_3983.mp3"}