British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford leaves Indonesia death row to return home
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Lindsay Sandiford covering her face during a Nov 6 handover ceremony in Bali for her repatriation.
PHOTO: EPA
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- Lindsay Sandiford, 69, and Shahab Shahabadi, 36, both imprisoned for drug offences, were released from Bali jail as part of a repatriation deal.
- Sandiford, sentenced to death in 2013 for trafficking, claimed she transported drugs due to threats against her son's life.
- The convicts, both suffering from severe health problems, will receive medical treatment in London, following a deal signed in October.
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DENPASAR, Indonesia – Two British drug convicts including a grandmother on death row left a Bali jail on Nov 6, an Indonesian ministry official told AFP, as part of a deal to send them home.
Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, but has moved to release more than half a dozen high-profile detainees in the past year, including a Filipina mother on death row.
Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was sentenced to death on the tourist island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs.
She will be repatriated along with Shahab Shahabadi, 36, who was serving a life sentence for drug offences after his arrest in 2014.
The two convicts left prison and were transferred to the airport, Law and Human Rights Ministry official I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram told AFP.
British death row inmate Lindsay Sandiford sitting in a vehicle leaving Kerobokan prison in Badung, Bali, before being transported to the airport for repatriation on Nov 6.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Sandiford wound up behind bars in Indonesia after Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in her suitcase when she landed in Bali in 2012.
Sandiford admitted the offences but said she had agreed to carry the narcotics after a drug syndicate threatened to kill her son.
The repatriation comes after Indonesia’s Senior Law and Human Rights Minister, Mr Yusril Ihza Mahendra, signed a deal with British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper in October for the repatriation of Sandiford and Shahabadi.
Both prisoners are suffering from severe health problems.
British national Shahab Shahabadi (centre) during the handover ceremony on Nov 6.
PHOTO: EPA
Mr Yusril said in October that Sandiford was “seriously ill”, while Shahabadi was “suffering from various serious illnesses, including mental health issues”.
An Indonesian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the two prisoners would be taken to a hospital for medical treatment after arriving in London.
‘Goodbye letters’
Sandiford’s case caught tabloid attention back in Britain, with one newspaper publishing in 2015 an article in which she detailed her fear of death.
“My execution is imminent, and I know I might die at any time now. I could be taken tomorrow from my cell,” she wrote in The Mail on Sunday.
“I have started to write goodbye letters to members of my family.”
As at August, nearly 600 inmates were on death row in Indonesia, according to the rights group Kontras, citing official data.
Among them are around 90 foreigners, according to the Immigration and Correction Ministry.
Lindsay Sandiford was said to be “seriously ill”.
PHOTO: EPA
Indonesia last carried out executions in 2016, killing one of its own citizens and three Nigerian drug convicts by firing squad.
President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has repatriated several high-profile inmates since he took office in 2024, including the last five members of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug ring.
In December, Filipina inmate Mary Jane Veloso
In February, French national Serge Atlaoui,
