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Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina has refused to apologise for the deadly crackdown on street protests that ultimately led to her downfall last year, as part of a rare and wide-reaching interview with The Independent.

Prosecutors in Bangladesh are seeking the death penalty for Hasina, accusing her of crimes against humanity by ordering the use of lethal force against student protesters, resulting in up to 1,400 deaths.

Hasina, who ruled with an iron fist for over 15 years, is now living in exile in India. Asked if she would apologise to the families of protesters killed last year, she said she “mourns each and every child, sibling, cousin and friend we lost as a nation” and would “continue to offer my condolences”.

But she rejects the allegation that she ordered police to shoot demonstrators, and says her Awami League party is being unfairly denied the opportunity to contest new elections in Bangladesh by the unelected interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Speaking out in one of her first interviews since her ousting, Hasina told The Independent that she would “neither be surprised nor intimidated” if Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal sentenced her to death, calling the proceedings “a sham trial” driven by political vengeance.

“The ICT is a sham court presided over by an unelected government consisting of my political opponents. Many of those opponents will stop at nothing to get rid of me,” she said. “Because of my family’s history, nobody can be more aware than I am of the history of political assassinations in our country, and this move by the ICT is part of that ugly tradition.”

Hasina defended her actions during the protests last year and denied any personal culpability for the killings during what she labelled a “violent insurrection”.

She blames the high number of casualties on “breakdowns in discipline among security forces on the ground”, adding: “As a leader, I ultimately take leadership responsibility, but the claim that I ordered or wished for the security forces to open fire on the crowds is simply wrong.”

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File. Anti-government protestors display Bangladesh’s national flag as they storm Sheikh Hasina’s palace in Dhaka on 5 August 2024 (AFP via Getty Images)

Hasina also claimed that her government had initiated an independent inquiry into the first killings, which she claims was later shut down by the interim government that succeeded her.

Bangladesh’s crackdown on protesters last year shocked the world. Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, Babu Ram Pant, said at the time: “The rising death toll is a shocking indictment of the absolute intolerance shown by the Bangladeshi authorities to protest and dissent.”

The United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said at the time that “the attacks on student protesters are particularly shocking and unacceptable”.

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File. Awami League party office in Dhaka on 6 August 2024, a day after Sheikh Hasina fled the country (AFP via Getty Images)

Hasina contested the often-cited death toll during the student-led protests, saying that “the 1,400 figure is useful to the ICT for propaganda purposes but is probably inflated”.

The protests began last July with university students demanding the removal of quotas on government jobs for relatives of veterans from Bangladesh’s war of independence. It spiralled into an anti-government movement, with hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life taking to the streets.

The security forces responded with brutal, lethal force, and after the initial wave of deaths protest leaders said they would accept nothing short of Hasina’s immediate removal from power.

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File. Smoke rises from the burning vehicles after protesters set them on fire near the Disaster Management Directorate office, during the anti-quota protest in Dhaka on 18 July 2024 (AFP via Getty Images)

Hasina said the government’s response at the time was carried out in “good faith.. to minimise the loss of life” as the protests spread.

Yunus returned to Bangladesh from his own de facto exile and assumed leadership of the interim government three days after Hasina’s ouster, pledging to hold her accountable and immediately banning all activities of her Awami League party.

Chief prosecutor Tajul Islam has described Hasina as the “mastermind and principal architect” of the crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the student-led uprising.

Yet Hasina claims the violence stemmed from decisions made by officers on the ground rather than directives from her government. She said: “The charges rely on compromised testimony and evidence that has been manipulated and taken out of context to serve the political ends of an unelected government.”

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File. In this handout photograph taken and released on 25 July 2024 by Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office, Sheikh Hasina (C) weeps while she visits a metro station in Mirpur vandalized by students during the anti-quota protests (Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office)

“The key street-level decisions were made by security personnel on the ground who were expected to follow well-established operational guidelines. Those guidelines endorse the use of firearms in certain circumstances. It may well be that in a febrile atmosphere some decisions were made that were mistaken.”

Defending her decision to flee the country on 5 August last year, she said she acted “out of necessity”. She says: “Staying would not only have put my life in danger, but also the lives of those around me.”

Despite her fleeing the country and the Awami League ban in Bangladesh, she insists she remains committed to “restoring democracy” in Bangladesh. “Only free, fair, and inclusive elections can heal the country,” she said. Yunus has said elections will be held in February 2026, though the Awami League will not be allowed to contest them.

Speaking about the legacy she hopes to leave behind, Hasina said she wanted to be remembered as the leader who restored “parliamentary democracy to our country in the 1990s after years of cruel military rule” and “lifting millions out of poverty”. She said these achievements were now “under threat” of being reversed.

As she waits for her sentencing by the ICT in absentia, Hasina probably knows that history will not judge her kindly. But she remains defiant, telling The Independent: “No democratically elected leader should be prosecuted for upholding constitutional duties to protect their country in the face of violent insurrection.”