Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death for trafficking drugs into the Indonesian resort island of Bali
A grandma who spent 12 years on death row in Indonesia is to return to the UK after 12 years incarceration.
As part of an agreement signed by the Indonesian government, Lindsay Sandiford will be repatriated alongside fellow Brit Shahab Shahabadi.
An Indonesian official today said: “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed.”
The grandma was issued a death sentence in 2013 after being found carrying cocaine worth $2.14million hidden in the false bottom of her suitcase when she arrived from Thailand a year earlier.
The government official in Indonesia said Sandiford as 68, though it’s understood she could be 69.
A press conference has been scheduled for their release later today.
The decision comes after Bali relaxed its notoriously strict drug smuggling laws.
The new legislation meant Sandiford – who had served more than 10 years behind bars with good behaviour – was an ideal inmate to be released.
Indonesia has recently freed other smugglers serving similar sentences as it relaxes its notoriously tough anti-drug laws.
And it’s understood that Sandiford is so confident in her chances of walking free, she’s started giving away her clothes to fellow inmates.
Earlier this year, a source told the Mirror: “For a long time Lindsay was resigned to her fate, but now she’s dreaming of freedom. Foreign Office officials have spent a lot of time visiting her in prison, and they’re working hard to secure her freedom.”
Earlier this year, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has moved to repatriate several high-profile drug offenders back to their home countries. This includes Serge Atlaoui, who was returned to France back in February on ‘humanitarian grounds’ due to illness.
In February, Pilipino maid Mary Jane Veloso, 40, also tasted freedom for the first time in 15 years after she was found carrying 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin at Indonesia’s Yogyakarta airport, while five members of the notorious Bali Nine were freed in December despite being convicted of trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin out of Indonesia in April 2005.
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