Topics: Crime, Death Row, UK News, World News
Lindsay Sandiford is preparing to return home after over a decade on death row.
The 69-year-old was sentenced to death in 2013 after being found to have five kilos of cocaine in her suitcase while traveling from Thailand to Bali.
The drugs reportedly had a street value of over $2 million. She said she was forced to carry the narcotics because a gang threatened her family.
The British national is originally from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK. However, she relocated to India in 2012 after splitting from her husband. The same year, she allegedly met two members of a drug syndicate in Bangkok.
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Sandiford went on to be charged with drug trafficking and has been on death row ever since.
The British grandma has attempted to appeal her sentence with no success — until now.
A repatriation agreement between Bali and the UK has been agreed that will see Sandiford be transferred home to England.
Per Metro Online, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a senior Indonesian minister for legal affairs, has signed a repatriation agreement with the UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper.
Apparently, the transfer will take 'around two weeks'.
Mahendra said of the 69-year-old inmate: "Lindsay is old and sick. 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."
Rev. Christie Buckingham, a pastor at Bayside Church in Melbourne, Australia, is one person who has long been campaigning for Sandiford's release.
She's currently in Indonesia and has spoken to Sandiford.
"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 ground," the pastor told the Metro of the Brit's pending release.
Buckingham further shared that Sandiford is 'keen to be back home with her family'.
"She will forever be grateful for this second chance," Buckingham added.
Before an agreement was made about her release, Sandiford shared her one final wish: that her family didn't see her before her execution.
"When it happens I don't want my family to come. I don't want any fuss at all. The one thing certain about life is no one gets out alive," the mom-of-two said to the Mirror.
"My attitude is 'If you want to shoot me, shoot me. Get on with it'," she added.
Fortunately, this will no longer be in the case, and Sandiford will soon be reunited with her loved ones.
