Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikbh Hasina, now in India after being ousted in mass protests last year, has said she hopes the ban on her Awami League party will be lifted before next year’s general election, insisting that “common sense will prevail.”

In written answers to emailed questions from the BBC, Hasina said tens of millions of her supporters “must not be disenfranchised” ahead of the February 2026 polls.

“We hope that common sense will prevail and that this [election] ban will be lifted. We have tens of millions of supporters who must not be disenfranchised,” Hasina said, adding that the Awami League “is part of the national conversation in Bangladesh, and that will not change.”

Hasina fled to India in August 2024 and has refused to return to face trial at the International Crimes Tribunal, which is set to deliver a verdict on Monday in a case accusing her of crimes against humanity. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, alleging she was the key architect behind hundreds of killings during the student-led uprising that toppled her government—charges she “categorically” denies.

“My trial in absentia is a farce, a kangaroo court controlled by political opponents,” she said, claiming she had been unable to defend herself or appoint her own lawyers.

Security has been tightened around the tribunal in Dhaka ahead of Monday’s verdict, a moment seen as significant for the country and for families of those killed during the 2024 anti-government protests. UN human rights investigators say up to 1,400 people were killed as the former government used “systematic, deadly violence” to cling to power.

Hasina rejected allegations that she personally ordered security forces to fire on protesters. “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.

During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence including leaked audio—verified earlier by BBC Eye—suggesting she authorised the use of “lethal weapons” in July 2024. The recording was played in court.

Hasina was indicted in July alongside former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who is in hiding, and former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who has pleaded guilty but is yet to be sentenced.

Her lawyers said Monday they had filed an urgent appeal to the UN, alleging serious fair-trial violations at the tribunal.

Hasina is also facing separate charges of crimes against humanity and corruption, which she denies. Responding to questions about secret detention facilities uncovered after her fall from power, she said she “did not have knowledge” of them and denied involvement in enforced disappearances or extra-judicial killings.

“If there is evidence of abuse by officials, let us have it examined properly in an impartial, depoliticised process,” she said.