Years-old video of Sheikh Hasina in London misrepresented as recent interview
- Published on July 9, 2026 at 08:44
- 3 min read
- By Eyamin SAJID, AFP Bangladesh
After Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina gave an interview to Indian news outlet NDTV in June, social media posts falsely claimed a video showed the exiled leader telling journalists she would return to Bangladesh soon -- despite facing a death sentence. The footage predates Hasina's interview by nearly two decades and was filmed during a question-and-answer session organised by a Bangladesh student group at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 2007.
"Sheikh Hasina is returning home on the 5th. She was spotted in broad daylight in Delhi," reads a Bengali-language Facebook post shared on July 4, 2026.
Superimposed text on the bottom of the video reads: "Sheikh Hasina returning home on 6, Hasina told journalists at a hotel in India".
The clip, which has since racked up more than 130,000 views and 1,200 shares, shows Hasina speaking with journalists. Someone asks her if she is returning home on the sixth before the clip cuts to another person with a question.
The same video circulated with similar claims elsewhere on Facebook after Hasina's interview with NDTV was published on June 29. She told the broadcaster via email that she would return to Bangladesh "this year" but did not specify a date (archived link).
Hasina fled to neighbouring India in August 2024 after a student-led uprising and remains in self-imposed exile there. She has not been seen in public since then, and she defied an arrest warrant from Dhaka (archived link).
Hasina's political party, the Awami League, was outlawed in Bangladesh on May 10, 2025 over its role in violent attacks on student protesters, which led to her ouster. A court sentenced her to be hanged for crimes against humanity in November of that year (archived link).
The clip circulating online, however, does not show a recent interview with Hasina -- it was taken in London in 2007.
Video from 2007
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to similar footage published on YouTube on May 16, 2007 (archived link).
The footage, titled "Sheikh Hasina on Professor Yunus", shows her speaking to a room full of people answering questions by journalists.
A voiceover at the start of the video says: "Sheikh Hasina expressed her opinion in response to questions raised by visitors, audiences and journalists at an event at the London School of Economics organised by the Bangladesh students' association on May 1, 2007".
Further keyword searches found a longer version of the video published July 17, 2007 on the YouTube channel of Tanvir Ahmed, a journalist who used to work for UK-based Bangladeshi news outlet Channel S (archived link).
The circulating clip matches roughly the first two minutes of the video.
Ahmed, who is now editor-in-chief of UK-based Bangladeshi news outlet Politika News, told AFP on July 7, 2026 that he was among the group of journalists who interviewed Hasina at LSE nearly two decades ago.
"I took an interview of Awami League President Sheikh Hasina at the London School of Economics on May 1, 2007," he said. "It was aired on London-based Channel S. But I published the video on my private YouTube channel on July 17, 2007".
Hasina, the opposition leader at the time, was on a personal trip to the United States before travelling to the United Kingdom, where she was barred from returning to Bangladesh by the country's military-backed interim government (archived link).
She was eventually allowed to return on May 7, 2007, but was arrested on July 16 of that year on extortion charges (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked similar misinformation about Bangladesh politics.
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