Indonesia | Lindsay Sandiford to return to UK today after 13 years on death row for drug smuggling

Lindsay Sandiford, 69, will be handed a UK-funded seat on a flight leaving Bali this afternoon. She was sentenced to death in 2013 after being caught smuggling £1.6million of cocaine into Indonesia.

The 69-year-old pensioner has been granted a UK-funded seat on a flight leaving Bali this afternoon. The legal secretary, who was sentenced to death in 2013, will have a brief layover before landing at London Heathrow Airport following a 20-hour journey.

This marks the end of a distressing period for Sandiford, during which she spent 13 years awaiting execution for smuggling £1.6million worth of cocaine into Indonesia.

A source revealed: "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."

It is understood by the Mirror that Sandiford is due to leave her cell in Kerobokan jail this afternoon alongside fellow UK national Shahab Shahabadi, 35, who was detained in June 2014 and is serving a life sentence for drug offences.

From there, the pair will travel 45 minutes by car to Denpasar International Airport where they will finally be handed over to the UK Ambassador Dominic Jermey.

The pair will be presented to the media one last time, before boarding their flight accompanied by British officials, reports the Mirror.

Sandiford was handed a death sentence in 2013, despite her claims that a UK-based drug syndicate coerced her into smuggling drugs from Thailand. She has endured 13 years in Bali's infamous Kerobokan prison, where unsanitary conditions, overcrowding and humidity make life extremely harsh.

However, last month saw a bilateral agreement reached between Indonesia and the UK Government to secure her release, with officials confirming she is "seriously ill". Sources in Indonesia suggest Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper personally appealed to the Indonesian authorities for Sandiford's return.

It's understood that Foreign Office officials have been working on the deal for over 18 months, making regular visits to see her in prison. Pastor Christine Buckingham, who visited Sandiford in Kerobokan jail 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 about her plans upon landing 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."

Sandiford, who is originally from Redcar, moved to India in 2012 following her eviction from a rented property in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Upon her arrival in Bali from Bangkok, Thailand, in May 2012, she was detained with a stash of cocaine concealed in her luggage.

Sandiford insisted that she had been coerced into carrying the Class A substances by a criminal organisation, who had issued threats against her family if she refused to cooperate.

However, the grandmother dramatically altered her account when she learnt that a drug trafficking conviction would result in the death penalty.

She confessed to officers that she had been requested to transport the narcotics by a British antiques dealer.

Sandiford's legal representatives contended that she had been compelled into transporting the drugs and was struggling with mental health issues.

Their appeals were rejected and she was found guilty - despite the prosecution having sought a 15-year prison sentence rather than the death penalty.

Last year the Mirror disclosed Sandiford was desperately hoping for her freedom after Indonesia eased their notoriously harsh laws on drug trafficking.

Indonesia hasn't executed anyone since 2016.

Source: gazettelive.co.uk, Dan Warburton, Sophie Barley, November 6, 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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