FILE PHOTO: British national Lindsay Sandiford reacts in her holding cell after she was sentenced to death for trafficking drugs worth an estimated US$2.14 million, following a hearing at a court in Denpasar, Indonesia's Bali island, on January 22, 2013. Indonesia will sign an agreement on October 21, 2025 to repatriate two British nationals, including Sandiford. - AFP
JAKARTA: Indonesia will sign an agreement on Tuesday (Oct 21) to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother, languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source told AFP.
"The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed," the source said, identifying 68-year-old Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred.
Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs.
Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford's suitcase when she arrived in Bali on a flight from Thailand in 2012.
Shahabadi was arrested in 2014 on drug charges, according to information shared by the source.
The British embassy in Jakarta directed all queries to the Indonesian government.
A press conference for the "release of two British nationals" was scheduled for later Tuesday by Indonesian authorities and the British ambassador to Indonesia, according to a release by the coordinating Ministry of Legal, Human Rights, Immigration and Correction.
Sandiford admitted the offences, but said she had agreed to carry the narcotics after a drug syndicate threatened to kill her son.
Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws, and dozens of foreigners remain on death row in Indonesia for drug offences. - AFP
