Return from death row

Sandiford being sent home after prison hell due to serious illness

- BY DAN WARBURTON

DRUGS mule Lindsay Sandiford was granted a late reprieve from Bali's death row because she is seriously ill, the Record can reveal.

The 69-year-old gran could be home within days after Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made a personal plea to the authorities for her return, Indonesian sources said.

Sandiford has been living under the daily threat of execution since being sentenced to death in 2013 for smuggling cocaine valued at £1.6million.

It is believed a meeting to finalise her release could take place as early as tomorrow, and that she will be handed over to UK officials at Bali airport.

An insider said: "Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper both submitted a request to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto for Sandiford to be transferred back to the UK. It marks the end of a harrowing time for Sandiford, who has been desperate to come home. It's a significant step in international relations with Indonesia.

"Officials struck the deal on the basis that the UK government would also be obliged to listen to applications for the repatriation of any Indonesian prisoners serving sentences in the UK."

Indonesia's senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra revealed yesterday: "[Sandiford has been] examined by our doctor, as well as by the doctor from the British consulate in Bali, and is seriously ill."

The legal secretary will be returned with fellow Brit Shahab Shahabadi, 35, given life for drug offences in 2014.