{"id":268567,"date":"2025-11-07T10:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T10:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268567\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T10:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T10:18:07","slug":"british-woman-on-bali-death-row-flies-home-on-humanitarian-grounds-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268567\/","title":{"rendered":"British woman on Bali death row flies home on humanitarian grounds | Indonesia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two British drug convicts including death row prisoner Lindsay Sandiford were repatriated from Indonesia<\/a> on Friday, as part of a deal to return them on humanitarian grounds.<\/p>\n

Indonesia<\/a> has some of the world\u2019s toughest drug laws, but has moved to release more than half a dozen high-profile detainees in the last year.<\/p>\n

Sandiford<\/a>, 69, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs.<\/p>\n

She was repatriated along with Shahab Shahabadi, 36, who was serving a life sentence for drug offences after his arrest in 2014.<\/p>\n

Both left Bali on a Qatar Airways flight to London via Doha, an official from Indonesia\u2019s law and human rights ministry confirmed to AFP on Friday.<\/p>\n

They had been presented before the media in a handover ceremony at Kerobokan jail a day earlier, with Sandiford covering her face.<\/p>\n

Their \u201cdetention will be moved to the United Kingdom\u201d under the bilateral deal, the official, I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Lindsay and Shahab, after we hand (them) over to the United Kingdom government, (they) are fully responsible for the legal decision that will be given there but still respecting our legal decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandiford wound up behind bars after Indonesian customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated $2.14m hidden in a false bottom of her suitcase when she landed in Bali in 2012.<\/p>\n

Sandiford admitted to the offences but said she had agreed to carry the narcotics after a drug syndicate threatened to kill her son.<\/p>\n

The repatriation comes after Indonesia\u2019s senior law and human rights minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, signed a deal with British foreign minister Yvette Cooper last month for the transfer of Sandiford and Shahabadi.<\/p>\n

Both prisoners are suffering from severe health problems.<\/p>\n

Yusril said last month that Sandiford was \u201cseriously ill\u201d, while Shahabadi was \u201csuffering from various serious illnesses, including mental health issues\u201d.<\/p>\n

Matthew Downing, Britain\u2019s deputy ambassador to Indonesia, said the two were being repatriated on \u201chumanitarian grounds\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they first arrive in the UK, the priority will be about their health,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they\u2019ll be going through a health assessment, and any treatment and rehabilitation that they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two will be \u201cgoverned by the law and procedures of the UK\u201d government upon their return, Downing said.<\/p>\n

As of August, nearly 600 inmates were on death row in Indonesia, according to the rights group KontraS, citing official data.<\/p>\n

Among them are around 90 foreigners, according to immigration data.<\/p>\n

Indonesia last carried out executions in 2016, killing one of its own citizens and three Nigerian drug convicts by firing squad.<\/p>\n

President Prabowo Subianto\u2019s<\/a> administration has repatriated several high-profile inmates since he took office in 2024, including the last five members of the so-called \u201cBali Nine\u201d<\/a> drug ring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two British drug convicts including death row prisoner Lindsay Sandiford were repatriated from Indonesia on Friday, as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-268567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}