UK and Indonesia agree to send home a British woman facing death penalty for drugs

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A British woman will avoid execution for drug smuggling in Indonesia under an agreement signed Tuesday between the two nations to repatriate her and another Briton serving a life sentence.

Lindsay Sandiford, 68, has been imprisoned on Bali since 2012. She was arrested at the resort island’s airport after authorities found 3.8 kilograms (8.4 pounds) of cocaine worth $2.5 million hidden in the lining of her suitcase. During the trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that threatened her children.

She was sentenced to die by firing squad and Indonesia’s highest court upheld it in 2013.

Another prisoner, Shahab Shahabadi, 35, has been serving a life sentence since 2014. He was arrested in Jakarta as a result of an investigation into an international drug trafficking network. He had previously sent 30 kilograms (15 pounds) of methamphetamine powder in several shipments from Iran to his partner for distribution in Jakarta, before finally arriving in Jakarta himself, prosecutors said.

“Both of them are facing problems. The first one is ill and has been examined by a doctor from the British Consulate in Bali. She is seriously ill and is 68 years old,” said Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Yvette Cooper. She signed the repatriation agreement with Indonesia’s Senior Minister of Law Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Mahendra said the transfer of the prisoners will take place after both countries have completed technical and administrative steps.

Indonesia under President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has sent several foreign prisoners home under bilateral agreements with each of their countries. They included a Filipina who faced the death penalty for drugs and five Australians convicted of heroin trafficking.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including nearly 100 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed last month. Indonesia’s last executions, of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.