British grandmother sentenced to death in Indonesia gets pardon more than a decade after her drugs conviction

Indonesia on Tuesday signed a deal to repatriate two British citizens, including a seriously ill grandmother sentenced to death for more than a decade on drug charges, a minister said.

Indonesia has some of the The strictest anti-drug laws in the world.but has moved to free a half-dozen high-profile detainees in the past year, including a Filipino mother sentenced to death and the last five members of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug ring.

Lindsay Sandiford, now in her mid-60s, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after being convicted of drug trafficking.

Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated $2.14 million hidden in a double bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when he arrived in Bali on a flight from Thailand in 2012.

Sandiford admitted to the crimes but said he had agreed to transport the narcotics after a drug syndicate threatened to kill his son. In 2013 he lost an appeal against his death sentence.

In Indonesia, convicted drug traffickers are sometimes executed by firing squad.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said he had signed an agreement with British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper for the transfer of Sandiford and Shahab Shahabadi, a 35-year-old man serving a life sentence for drug offenses after his arrest in 2014.

“We agreed to grant the transfer of the prisoners to the United Kingdom. The agreement has been signed,” Yusril told reporters in the capital Jakarta, confirming an earlier Agence France-Presse report on their repatriation.

The delivery of both will be once the technical details of the transfer are agreed, the organization of which, according to the minister, could take “around two weeks.”

Britain’s Foreign Office told BBC News: “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.”

Both prisoners suffer from serious health problems.

Sandiford has been “examined by our doctor, as well as the doctor at the British consulate in Bali, and is seriously ill,” Yusril said.

Shahabadi “suffered from several serious illnesses, including mental health problems,” he added.

The minister identified Sandiford as 68 years old, although public information showed him to be 69.

It was unclear whether Sandiford would remain in Bali’s most overcrowded and notorious prison, Kerobokan, or be moved to another facility before her transfer.

Jennifer Fleetwood, a criminologist at the University of London, was part of Sandiford’s appeal team in the initial case 12 years ago. He told BBC News that Sandiford endured harsh conditions.

“To take a prison sentence with the threat of execution, I can’t imagine how difficult that would be,” Fleetwood told BBC News. “Having spent time doing research in prisons abroad, I know that it is very, very difficult for people to serve a sentence abroad.”

Indonesia’s Immigration and Corrections Ministry said that as of early November, more than 90 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges.

In June, three other British citizens accused of smuggling more than two pounds of cocaine into Indonesia were charged in Bali. They face the death penalty under the country’s strict drug laws.

Lisa Stocker, 39, her husband Jon Collyer, 38, and Phineas Float, 31, faced the death penalty, but in July a judge told them they would only serve a 12-month sentence, BBC News reported.

“I know I could die at any moment”

Sandiford’s case attracted tabloid attention in Britain, and one newspaper published an article written by her detailing her fear of death.

“My execution is imminent and I know I could die at any moment. I could be taken from my cell tomorrow,” he wrote in the Mail on Sunday in 2015. “I have started writing goodbye letters to members of my family.”

Sandiford, originally from Redcar in northeast England, wrote in the article that she had planned to sing Perry Como’s upbeat hit “Magic Moments” when she faced the firing squad.

She became friends in prison with Andrew Chan, an Australian murdered by firing squad for his role in a plot to smuggle heroin as a member of the “Bali Nine” group.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has repatriated several high-profile prisoners, all convicted of drug crimes, since taking office a year ago.

In December, a Filipino prisoner mary jane veloso He tearfully reunited with his family after almost 15 years on death row.

In February, French citizen Serge Atlaoui, 61, was returned to his country after 18 years on death row.

Indonesia last carried out executions in 2016, killing one of its own citizens and three Nigerian drug prisoners by firing squad.

The government recently signaled it could resume them.

In:

• bali
• Drug traffic
• Death penalty
• Indonesia
• United Kingdom