The British grandmother being freed from death row in Bali has said she will be ‘forever grateful’ to the Indonesian government for her release.
Lindsay Sandiford, 69, and another Brit are being allowed home under a repatriation agreement between the two countries.
Sandiford, speaking via a pastor who has supported her case, told of being allowed a ‘second chance’ at life with her family in England after spending 12 years facing execution in Bali for drug smuggling.
The mum-of-two is ‘seriously ill’ and has been examined by a doctor from the British consulate on the island, according to Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a senior Indonesian minister for legal affairs.
One of the campaigners who has supported the mum-of-two over the years is Rev. Christie Buckingham, a pastor at Bayside Church in Melbourne, Australia, who is currently in Indonesia.
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She told Metro: ‘We are deeply grateful for the courageous compassion shown by President Prabowo Subianto and the Indonesian government in their commitment to repatriate Lindsay Sandiford on humanitarian grounds. After 13 years, she is keen to be back home with her family.
‘She will forever be grateful for this second chance.’
Mr Mahendra has signed a repatriation agreement with the UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper. He said on Tuesday that the transfer will take place ‘in around two weeks’ after both sides complete technical and administrative processes.
‘Lindsay is old and sick.’ he told Reuters. ‘In prison she had good behaviour so that was enough reason to satisfy the request from the United Kingdom government that she be returned home and complete her sentence there.’
Sandiford, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was sentenced to death in 2013 after being convicted of trafficking drugs into Bali.
Officers found nearly five kilos of cocaine with a street value of £1.6 million hidden in a false bottom of her suitcase after she had arrived on a flight from Thailand a year earlier.
The former legal secretary admitted the offences but said she only agreed to carry the stash after a drug syndicate threatened to harm her sons.
She is being released alongside fellow British citizen Shahab Shahabadi. Both prisoners are said to have been suffering from health problems.
Sandiford, who is thought to have moved to Cheltenham from Redcar, Teesside, is locked up in Kerobokan prison.
She reportedly spent her days behind bars knitting clothes and toys for her grandchildren, charities and church groups.
Criminologist Jennifer Fleetwood, of City St George’s, University of London, submitted an expert statement to the Indonesian court before the sentencing, working with human rights charity Reprieve.
She told Metro: ‘I worked alongside Reprieve and provided an expert statement to the Indonesian court in 2012.
British woman’s countdown to freedom
Sandiford is caught with cocaine stuffed into the lining of her suitcase as she lands in Bali. She says she was coerced into the smuggling trip because her two sons were being threatened in England.
A court in Bali passes the death penalty, which the prosecution had not been seeking. Sandiford, then 56, weeps and covers her face as she judges hand down the sentence.
High Court judges in Bali uphold the death sentence as Sandiford’s appeal fails. The UK says it is ‘disappointed’ by the decision and will continue to provide consular assistance ‘at this difficult time.’
The UK Supreme Court refuses to fund her legal case in Indonesia. They uphold existing policy about providing legal funding for Britons facing capital charges abroad but say an ‘urgent review’ of her case should be undertaken by the Foreign Secretary.
A moratorium on executions is announced in Indonesia, which ministers say is intended to enable the country to concentrate on fixing its ailing economy. Sandiford had been convinced that her execution was imminent.
Sandiford is due to be freed under a repatriation deal between the UK and Indonesia as it’s said that she is ‘seriously ill.’ It is believed that she could be handed over to UK officials at Bali airport either this week or next.
‘I was deeply shocked when she was sentenced to death.
‘It was always my assessment that her account of being coerced was credible and so the death penalty was disproportionate.
‘I am so pleased to hear that Lindsay Sandiford will be repatriated.
‘She has served a very long sentence indeed. I wish her all the best as she prepares to return home to her family.’
Sandiford’s sentencing to death by firing squad drew audible gasps of shock when it was announced at court in Bali.
She had claimed to have been coerced into acting as a mule for drug traffickers while fearing her sons were in danger, and Reprieve said she had been exploited due to mental health issues.
In 2015, she met her then two-year-old granddaughter, Ayla, for the first time in a room at the prison. At the time, Sandiford said: ‘I know this may be the first and last time I ever hold my granddaughter.’
Four years later, she said from prison: ‘Dying doesn’t bother me.
‘What I am uncomfortable about is the public humiliation.
‘You’re dragged half-way around the country and paraded in front of the press before being executed and that will be the worst thing for me.
‘My attitude is “If you want to shoot me, shoot me. Get on with it.”
‘I’ve done a terrible thing, I know, but the worst thing is the ritual public humiliation they seem to enjoy.’
Sandiford has also said she envisaged not wearing a blindfold in front of a firing squad and singing Magic Moments by Perry Como.
The agreement brings an end to an ordeal which at one point left Sandiford fearing execution at 72 hours’ notice.
Two separate appeals – to the High Court in Bali and the Indonesian Supreme Court – were rejected.
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: ‘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.’
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