Lindsay Sandiford has landed in the UK after spending years facing the prospect of execution in Indonesia(Image: Indonesia's Coordinating Ministr)

Bali drugs mule gran Lindsay Sandiford, 69, arrives back on UK soil

Lindsay Sandiford, 69, has landed back in the UK after 13 years awaiting execution in Indonesia for smuggling drugs - she is said to 'desperate' to see her family but could face more time behind bars

by · The Mirror

A 69-year-old grandma who spent 12 years on death row for smuggling £1.6million of cocaine into Bali has arrived back in the UK.

Lindsay Sandiford, then 56, admitted to smuggling drugs into Indonesia back in 2012 - but claimed she had been coerced by an international drug syndicate that threatened her family if she refused. She was sentenced to death by firing squad the following year, and spent years locked up in brutal conditions before a deal was reached for her release on humanitarian grounds last month.

After a 20-hour flight, including a layover, Sandiford landed at London Heathrow Airport on a £600 ticket paid for by the government - marking her first time on British soil in over a decade.

Lindsay Sandiford hid her face as she was set free from prison( Image: AFP via Getty Images)

She is reported to be "desperate" to return home to her family and receive urgent medical treatment after the UK Government secured her release.

A source revealed: "Doctors have assessed Lindsay and determined she's very unwell. She has spent 12 years in one of the worst prisons in the world and that has taken its toll on her. She's desperate to get home, she's been preparing for months. Before leaving prison she said a farewell to the other prisoners who have become like family to her."

And Pastor Christine Buckingham - who visited Sandiford in Kerobokan jail last week - told the Mirror: "She's very unwell. The most important thing is that she gets home, we need her to be checked medically and then the plan is that she says she will spend as much time as she can with her family."

Lindsay Sandiford spent 12 years in Indonesia's infamous Kerobokan jail( Image: AFP via Getty Images)

The grandmother was seen in a wheelchair yesterday as she tasted freedom for the first time in 13 years in custody, with 12 spent on death row, after leaving Bali's notorious Kerobokan jail.

Sandiford shielded her face from photographers as she was whisked away to Denpasar International Airport, where she boarded a Qatar Airways flight for a 20-hour journey back to the UK.

Sources in Indonesia say Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made a personal plea to the Indonesian authorities for her release.

Authorities in Indonesia claim she will spend more time behind bars upon her arrival in the UK - although the Foreign Office has refused to say if Sandiford will be taken into custody. Indonesia's Deputy Minister for Immigration and Correctional Coordination, I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, said: “In England, she will remain in prison.”

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