British grandmother on Indonesia death row to be returned to the UK

A British grandmother who has spent 12 years on death row in Indonesia for drug smuggling will be returned to the UK, an Indonesian government minister has said.

Lindsay Sandiford, originally from Redcar, Teesside, was arrested in Bali in May 2012 after customs officers found cocaine worth £1.6m in her luggage. The 69-year-old was sentenced to death by firing squad the following January but has been held in jail since.

Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a senior Indonesian minister on legal affairs, said the two countries had agreed to release Sandiford on humanitarian grounds. "Lindsay is old and sick," he said.

"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." The minister said another British national, who had been sentenced for life, was being released with Sandiford. She would possibly return home in the next two weeks, he added.

The Indonesian government said the other prisoner being returned to the UK is 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi. He was detained in June 2014 and is serving a life sentence, the authorities said.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are supporting two British Nationals detained in Indonesia and are in close contact with the Indonesian authorities to discuss their return to the UK." Sandiford has spent most of her time behind bars in the Kerobokan jail, where violence, corruption and drugs are commonplace. This overcrowded jail, built for 350 inmates, was housing more than 1,000 people when Sky News gained rare access behind its walls in 2013.

Read more:Ex-French president enters prisonHow the Louvre heist investigation is unfolding Sandiford admitted to drug smuggling but said she was forced to take the cocaine from Thailand to Bali by a criminal gang, and that the safety of her children was at risk. She cooperated with the police and local authorities, which led to other arrests..