Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina requested on Monday a new passport and identity card so she can leave self-imposed exile in India and return home, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Her lawyers at London-based Matrix Chambers wrote to Preeti Rahman, acting high commissioner at Bangladesh's embassy in Delhi, asking for the documents to be issued on the basis of her nationality. Hasina says she plans to return to surrender to a court, and her aides said the date would be announced once formalities were completed. Bangladesh's war-crimes court sentenced her to death in absentia in November last year for ordering a deadly crackdown on the student-led uprising, and she denies the charges.