British grandmother freed from Bali death row after 13 years, flies home seriously ill

Guards close the entrance to Kerobokan Prison where British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford was held on death row before her release. (Symbolic image) (Photo by JUNI KRISWANTO/AFP via Getty Images) Getty Images

Lindsay Sandiford, a 69-year-old British grandmother, is flying home from Bali today after spending 13 years on death row for drug smuggling. The seriously ill woman will board a UK-funded flight to London Heathrow Airport, ending more than a decade of awaiting execution in Indonesia.

Sandiford was arrested in May 2012 at Bali's airport with nearly five kilos of cocaine hidden in her suitcase, valued at £1.6 million. She was sentenced to death by firing squad in 2013, despite prosecutors recommending only a 15-year prison term. Indonesia's highest court upheld the death sentence the same year.

Diplomatic Agreement

A bilateral prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Indonesia secured Sandiford's release on humanitarian grounds. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper are understood to have made personal pleas to Indonesian authorities for her return.

Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia's minister for law and human rights, told Reuters: «Lindsay is old and sick.» He added: «In prison she had good behaviour so that was enough reason to satisfy the request from the United Kingdom government that she be returned home and complete her sentence there.»

UK Ambassador Dominic Jermey will meet Sandiford at Denpasar International Airport for the handover. Another British national, Shahab Shahabadi (35), serving a life sentence for drug offences since June 2014, will also be repatriated on the same flight.

Health Concerns

Pastor Christine Buckingham, who visited Sandiford in Bali's Kerobokan jail, told The Mirror: «She is in extremely ill health and she's very keen to get back and be with her family after these 13 years. She wants to get home and enjoy some creature comforts.»

Buckingham added: «We're deeply grateful to the Indonesian Government and of course the British Government for working this out together. [...] She's very unwell. The most important thing is that she gets home, we need her to be checked medically and then the plan is that she says she will spend as much time as she can with her family.»

Sandiford has claimed she was coerced into smuggling the drugs by a UK-based criminal gang that threatened her family. Her legal appeals, which cited mental health issues and coercion, were dismissed. In a 2019 prison statement, she said: «Dying doesn't bother me.» But she expressed distress about «the public humiliation» of execution protocols in Indonesia.

Indonesia has not carried out any executions since 2016, though approximately 530 people remain on death row, including 96 foreigners, mostly for drug-related offences.

Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).