Indonesia has finalized plans to repatriate Lindsay Sandiford, a British grandmother who has spent over a decade on death row after being convicted of drug trafficking in Bali.
The decision comes as part of an agreement signed between Indonesia’s Minister of Law and Human Rights, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, and the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper.
Sandiford, who was sentenced to death in 2013, was caught in 2012 at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport with cocaine valued at about $2.14 million hidden in her suitcase. According to Indonesian officials, she confessed to smuggling the drugs but claimed she did so under duress after a drug syndicate threatened to harm her son. “We agreed to grant the transfers of the prisoners to the UK. The agreement has been signed,” Yusril told reporters in Jakarta.
The minister confirmed that the transfer will also include another British national, Shahab Shahabadi, who has been serving a life sentence for drug offences since 2014. Both prisoners are reportedly in poor health, and the transfer is expected to take place within two weeks after technical arrangements are completed. Yusril added that Sandiford “has been examined by our doctor, as well as by the doctor from the British consulate in Bali, and is seriously ill.”
Sandiford’s case has long attracted global attention, with many calling for leniency due to her age and deteriorating health. During her years in prison, she reportedly expressed acceptance of her fate, writing in a British newspaper in 2015 that her “execution was imminent” and that she had begun writing goodbye letters to her family. She also revealed that she planned to sing Perry Como’s “Magic Moments” if she ever faced a firing squad.
Sandiford, originally from Redcar in northeast England, formed a friendship with Australian inmate Andrew Chan, one of the members of the infamous “Bali Nine,” who was executed in 2015. Her planned repatriation follows recent moves by President Prabowo Subianto’s administration to send home several foreign nationals previously sentenced to death for drug-related offences.
Indonesia, which has some of the world’s strictest drug laws, currently holds over 90 foreigners on death row, all for drug offences. The government, which last carried out executions in 2016, has recently indicated that it may resume capital punishment despite ongoing international pressure to abolish the death penalty.
