Indonesia | British grandmother who has spent 12 years on death row hugs grandchildren for first time as they visit Bali prison

Lindsay Sandiford, 68, reportedly shared 'cuddles and kisses' with her loved ones for the first time in years

A British grandmother who has been stuck on death row in Bali for more than a decade has been reunited with her loved ones for the first time in years.

Lindsay Sandiford has been locked up in Indonesia's notorious Kerobokan Prison since 2013 after being found guilty of trying to smuggle £1.6million of cocaine into the country.

The former legal secretary, 68, was sentenced to death by a firing squad after the drugs were discovered in the lining of her suitcase by officials at the Ngurah Rai International Airport.

She told police that she was forced into carrying the cocaine by a criminal gang who threatened to hurt her family, before helping authorities prosecute others who were involved in the drugs ring.

Sandiford has spent the last 12 years on death row in Bali's brutal prison, with multiple appeals for her freedom being rejected.

The Briton is said to have earned the nickname 'grandmother' from her fellow inmates, who she has taught to knit during her time behind bars.

And now, Sandiford has reportedly had 'cuddles and kisses' with her grandchildren for the first time in over a decade as her family members made a rare visit to Kerobokan Prison.

"She was happy and all went well," a prison source told the Mirror.

"Normally, these visits are held away from the normal meeting area but still have walls and iron bars with one door.

"There's always one or more guards who are stationed within earshot. But she was allowed to hold her family and have cuddles and kisses."

Another source also told the publication that Sandiford is 'now dreaming of freedom', despite previously accepting her fate.

Back in 2015, Sandiford was visited by the granddaughter she had never met, who was born seven months after her arrest in May 2012.

She was set to be executed in eight days at the time, although this decision was later reversed.

There has been renewed hope that Sandiford could be spared from the death penalty, as legal experts have suggested there could be major changes made to Indonesian law this year.

It could result in the grandmother's death sentence being changed into a life term, before her lawyers could then argue that she should be allowed to return to the UK.

She could then walk free when she's back on home soil due to all the time she has served in prison in Indonesia.

One of Sandiford's former cellmates previously spoke out about how she was coping with life behind bars, revealing she was struggling and had become withdrawn.

Source: ladbible.com, Olivia Burke, April 20, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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