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Lindsay Sandiford has arrived back in the UK after 13 years in the Indonesian prison system where she had been on death row (Picture: Toby Shepheard, AFP via Getty Images) The British grandmother freed from death row in Bali for drug trafficking has finally landed back on home soil after 13 years in prison. Lindsay Sandiford, 69, and another British national have been released in a repatriation agreement between the UK and Indonesia. She arrived back at Heathrow this afternoon on a reported £600 ticket paid for by the government after a 20-hour flight from the island via Dubai. The mum-of-two — who was convicted of smuggling a £1.6 million haul of cocaine into Bali — appeared frail and covered her face as she was taken in a wheelchair through the airport to waiting transport. She has previously spoken of being allowed a ‘second chance’ at life with her family in the UK after spending 12 years facing execution in Bali for drug smuggling. Sandiford is ‘seriously ill’ and has been examined by a doctor from the British consulate on the island, according to Indonesian minister Yusril Mahendra. Lindsay Sandiford spent 13 years in prison on the Indonesian island of Bali before her release and repatriation to the UK (Picture: Made Nagi/EPA/Shutterstock) It’s unclear if she will spend more time in prison now she has returned home, with I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, Indonesia’s deputy minister for immigration and correctional coordination, having said: ‘In England, she will remain in prison.’ The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has not clarified if Sandiford will be put back behind bars. One of the campaigners who has supported her over the years is Christie Buckingham, senior pastor at Bayside Church in Melbourne, Australia. 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.’ Lindsay Sandiford arrives for a court hearing in Bali’s capital, Denpasar (Picture: AFP) 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. It was always my assessment that her account of being coerced was credible, and so the death penalty was not an appropriate punishment. ‘It’s a tremendous injustice that internationally hundreds of people are sentenced to death each year, accused of drug trafficking. Many of them will be foreign nationals, or vulnerable in other ways due to poverty or ill health. Some will have been coerced into carrying drugs for others. ‘I am so pleased that Lindsay Sandiford is being repatriated. ‘She has served a very long sentence indeed. I wish her all the best as she returns home to her family.’ Security attempt to stop media photographing Lindsay Sandiford as she is wheeled to waiting transport after landing at Heathrow (Picture: Toby Shepheard, AFP via Getty Images) Mr Mahendra signed a repatriation agreement with the UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, making the homecoming possible. Sir Keir Starmer was also involved in making the British plea for her release, according to sources in Indonesia. Why was Sandiford on death row? 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 kill her son. She has been released alongside fellow British citizen Shahab Shahabadi. Both are said to have been suffering from health problems. Sandiford, who is thought to have moved to Cheltenham from Redcar, Teesside, was locked up in the country’s Kerobokan prison. She reportedly spent her days behind bars knitting clothes and toys for her grandchildren, charities, and church groups. Lindsay’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 son was in danger, and Reprieve said she had been exploited due to mental health issues. Lindsay Sandiford is shown at Kerobokan Prison as the repatriation deal to return her to the UK gets underway (Picture: AFP) Time in prison 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.’ Lindsay Sandiford reacts in her holding cell after she was sentenced to death for trafficking drugs (Picture: AFP via Getty Images) 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. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been supporting both the British nationals detained in Indonesia. ArrowMORE: Death row gran Lindsay Sandiford ‘flying home to UK from Bali today’ after 13 years in prison ArrowMORE: Death row gran Lindsay Sandiford ‘forever grateful’ to be freed after 13 years ArrowMORE: Death row gran Lindsay Sandiford lands in UK after 13 years in Bali prison Do you have a story you would like to share? Contact josh.layton@metro.co.uk
