A British woman who has spent more than a decade on death row in Indonesia for drug smuggling will be repatriated to the United Kingdom following a new agreement between London and Jakarta.
Lindsay Sandiford, 68, was sentenced to death in 2013 after being convicted of smuggling 3.8 kilograms of cocaine into Bali. She was arrested in 2012 at Ngurah Rai International Airport when customs officials found the drugs concealed in the lining of her suitcase.
The cocaine, valued at around 2.5 million US dollars, was hidden so carefully that Indonesian authorities used X-ray machines and trained dogs to locate it.
During her trial, Sandiford said she had been coerced into transporting the drugs by an organized crime group that threatened to harm her children if she refused.
Despite her claims, Indonesia’s highest court upheld her death sentence in 2013, and she has remained on death row ever since.
Now, after years of diplomatic pressure and legal appeals, Sandiford will be allowed to return to Britain as part of a bilateral prisoner transfer agreement signed this week.
Yvette Cooper, the UK’s secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs, confirmed that Sandiford’s deteriorating health played a major role in the decision.
“Both of them are facing serious problems,” Cooper said in a statement reported by The Daily National News. “The first one is ill and has been examined by a doctor from the British Consulate in Bali. She is seriously ill and is 68 years old.”
Cooper signed the repatriation deal with Indonesia’s senior law minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, during a meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Mahendra said that the transfer would proceed once both nations completed the necessary administrative and technical procedures.
Also included in the agreement is another British national, 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi, who has been serving a life sentence in Jakarta since 2014.
Shahabadi was convicted after Indonesian prosecutors proved his involvement in an international narcotics network that trafficked methamphetamine from Iran to Indonesia.
Authorities said he was responsible for shipping more than 30 kilograms of methamphetamine powder to a partner in Jakarta before arriving in the country himself.
He was arrested after a joint investigation by Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency and international law enforcement agencies.
Under President Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia has adopted a more flexible approach toward the repatriation of foreign prisoners, especially those who are terminally ill or who have already served a significant portion of their sentences.
Recent years have seen several similar repatriations, including the release of a Filipina woman once sentenced to death for drug trafficking and five Australians convicted of heroin smuggling.
However, Indonesia continues to enforce some of the toughest anti-drug laws in the world, maintaining the death penalty for major trafficking offenses.
According to The Daily National News, Indonesia currently holds about 530 inmates on death row, most for drug-related crimes, and nearly 100 of them are foreign nationals.
The country last carried out executions in July 2016, when four prisoners, including three foreigners, were executed by firing squad.
Human rights organizations have repeatedly called on Indonesia to abolish the death penalty, arguing that many of those sentenced are victims of coercion or poverty.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has identified Indonesia as a major transit hub for international narcotics, largely due to its strategic location and youthful population.
Sandiford’s lawyers have long maintained that she should never have faced execution, pointing to evidence that she acted under duress and that the threats against her family were credible.
Her health has declined significantly over the years, with reports indicating that she requires regular medical treatment for chronic illnesses.
British officials have been working behind the scenes to secure her release for more than a decade, navigating Indonesia’s complex judicial system and strict anti-drug laws.
Sandiford is expected to serve the remainder of her sentence in a British prison once repatriated, though legal experts say her sentence could be reviewed under UK law.
Her case has reignited debate over the fairness of Indonesia’s capital punishment system and the treatment of foreign nationals caught in its judicial process.
While the timeline for her transfer remains uncertain, officials from both governments have indicated that the process could be completed within months.
For Sandiford, who has spent 12 years awaiting execution in Bali’s Kerobokan Prison, the repatriation marks the end of a long and painful ordeal and the beginning of a new chapter under British custody.
