Lindsay Sandiford flown home after 12 years on Indonesian death row

A British grandmother who spent 12 years on death row in Indonesia after being convicted of drug smuggling was flown home on Friday as part of a deal between the UK and Indonesian governments.

Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after nearly 5kg of cocaine worth £1.6 million ($2.1 million) was found with her on a flight from Thailand in 2012.

Despite having some of the world’s strictest drug laws, Indonesia has released several high-profile detainees in the past year, including members of the notorious “Bali Nine” drug gang.

Sandiford was repatriated along with another British national, Shahab Shahabadi, who was serving a life sentence for drug trafficking.

Indonesian officials said their flight departed Bali at around 00:30 local time (16:30 GMT Thursday).

Sandiford and Shahabadi were said to have suffered health problems while in prison. Indonesia’s senior law and human rights minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said last month that Sandiford was “seriously ill” while Shahabadi had “several serious illnesses, including mental health problems”, AFP news agency reported.

Sandiford attended a press conference in a wheelchair in a Bali prison, hours before flying home.

He admitted the crimes in 2013 but said he only agreed to transport the cocaine after a drug syndicate threatened to kill his son.

British Deputy Ambassador to Indonesia Matthew Downing said Sandiford and Shahabadi were sent back to their country on “humanitarian grounds”.

He added that they would be given appropriate treatment “subject to UK laws and procedures” when they return.

In December 2024, Indonesia repatriated the five remaining members of the “Bali Nine” drug gang after they spent nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons. The two ringleaders were executed by firing squad in 2015.

Also in December, Filipino Mary Jane Veloso was sent back to the Philippines. The mother of two, who was nearly executed, claimed she was tricked into carrying the drugs she always had on her.