A British grandmother who was facing a death sentence in Bali for smuggling a large haul of cocaine into the island will fly back to the UK on Thursday, according to reports.
Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was being held in the notorious Kerobokan prison for more than a decade but will return to London Heathrow after being spared the firing squad, the Daily Mirror reported.
A source told the newspaper: “Lindsay is extremely unwell. She is desperate to get home and to be with her family.
“More than a decade in one of the world’s worst prisons has taken its toll on her and she wants nothing more than to get back to the UK.”
An Indonesian government source told AFP in October that an agreement had been reached with the UK government which would see Sandiford, from Redcar in Teesside, free to return home.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson told The Independent: “We are supporting two British Nationals detained in Indonesia and are in close contact with the Indonesian authorities to discuss their return to the UK.”
She is scheduled to leave her cell in Kerobokan jail this afternoon alongside fellow UK national Shahab Shahabadi, 35, who was detained in 2014 and is serving a life sentence for drug offences, according to the Mirror. It is just a 45-minute car journey from the prison to Denpasar International airport, where they will finally be handed over to the UK ambassador, Dominic Jermey.
Sandiford was arrested at Bali’s Denpasar National airport in 2012 after customs officers discovered a haul of cocaine worth an estimated £1.6m in a hidden compartment of her suitcase when she arrived from Thailand.
She claimed that a British gang had forced her to smuggle the drugs – and threatened to kill one of her two sons if she refused to cooperate.
Police accused the grandmother of two of being part of an international drug network that imported drugs from several countries, including Peru, Colombia and Thailand. She was found guilty of smuggling 4.8kg of cocaine hidden in the lining of her suitcase on a flight from Bangkok. Prosecutors sentenced her to death.
Pastor Christine Buckingham – who visited Sandiford in jail just last week – 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.”
When asked what Sandiford intends to do when she touches down in the UK, Ms Buckingham said: “We’re deeply grateful to the Indonesian government and of course the British government for working this out together. We look forward to her getting home now. 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.”
