The British grandmother freed from death row in Bali 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 £600 ticket paid for by the government after a 20-hour flight from the island via Dubai.
The mum-of-two 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.
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Sandiford was said to be ‘seriously ill’ and has been examined by a doctor from the British consulate on the island, according to Indonesian minister Yusril Mahendra.
One of the campaigners who has supported the mum-of-two 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.’
Mahendra signed a repatriation agreement with the UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper.
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 is being released alongside fellow British citizen Shahab Shahabadi, with discussions underway between the countries about their repatriation to the UK.
Both prisoners 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.
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.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been supporting both the British nationals detained in Indonesia.
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