Seoul Gazette - UK grandmother leaves Indonesia death row to return 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 last 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.

Both were presented before the media in a handover ceremony at Kerobokan jail, with Sandiford covering her face.

I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, an official from Indonesia's law and human rights ministry, said their "detention will be moved to the United Kingdom" under the bilateral deal.

"For Lindsay and Shahab, after we hand (them) over to the United Kingdom government, (they) are fully responsible for the legal decision that will be given there but still respecting our legal decision."

Nyoman added that both prisoners are due to take off on a Qatar Airways flight after midnight to London via a transit in Doha.

- Health problems -

Sandiford wound up behind bars in Indonesia after customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated $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, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, signed a deal with British foreign minister Yvette Cooper last month for the transfer of Sandiford and Shahabadi.

Both prisoners are suffering from severe health problems.

Yusril said last month that Sandiford was "seriously ill", while Shahabadi was "suffering from various serious illnesses, including mental health issues".

Matthew Downing, Britain's deputy ambassador to Indonesia, said the two were being repatriated on "humanitarian grounds".

"When they first arrive in the UK, the priority will be about their health," he said.

"So they'll be going through a health assessment, and any treatment and rehabilitation that they need."

The two will be "governed by the law and procedures of the UK" government upon their return, Downing said.

- '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 of 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.

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 tearfully reunited with her family after nearly 15 years on death row.

In February, French national Serge Atlaoui, 61, was returned home after 18 years on death row.

L.Jeong--SG