Indonesia to repatriate British death row prisoner on humanitarian grounds

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JAKARTA - Indonesia and Britain agreed on Tuesday to repatriate a 69-year-old British woman who was on death row in the Southeast Asian country over drug-related offences, an Indonesian minister said.

Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to jail in 2013 for smuggling cocaine worth more than $2 million into the holiday island of Bali in Indonesia, a country with some of the worlds strictest drug trafficking laws.

Sandiford was found guilty of smuggling 4.8 kg (10.6 lb)of the drug hidden in the lining of her suitcase on a flight from Bangkok. She is 69, according to an Indonesian court document that listed her date of birth.

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. 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, he told Reuters.

Yusril said another British national, who had been sentenced for life, was being released with her.

Sandiford would possibly return home in the next two weeks, Yusril said. Britains foreign office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters could not immediately contact Sandiford or her representatives. REUTERS