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Grandmother who was facing Bali firing squad arrives back in the UK after 12 years on death row

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Lindsay Sandiford is wheeled in a wheelchair after landing at Terminal 4 Heathrow
Lindsay Sandiford is wheeled in a wheelchair after landing at Terminal 4 Heathrow. Picture: Getty

By StephenRigley

A grandmother who was facing execution by firing squad has arrived back in the UK after being repatriated from Bali.

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Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death on the Indonesian island in January 2013 for drug trafficking after she was found with cocaine worth an estimated £1.6 million as she arrived.

The 69-year-old, who was originally from Redcar, Teesside, admitted the offences but claimed she was coerced by threats to her son's life.

Images appear to show Sandiford in a wheelchair and covering her face with a jumper outside Heathrow Airport on Friday.

Lindsay Sandiford covers her face while attending a handover ceremony between representatives of Indonesian and British government, at Kerobokan Prison in Denpasar, Bali
Lindsay Sandiford covers her face while attending a handover ceremony between representatives of Indonesian and British government, at Kerobokan Prison in Denpasar, Bali. Picture: Alamy

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Read More: British grandmother on death row in Bali for more than 10 years for drug smuggling given ‘one final hope of escape'

Last month, an agreement to repatriate her, alongside fellow British national Shahab Shahabadi, 35, was signed by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Indonesia's Senior Minister of Law Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Both Britons have suffered severe health difficulties and Shahabadi was also due to fly to the UK on Friday.

Lindsay Sandiford pictured in jail 12 years ago
Lindsay Sandiford pictured in jail 12 years ago. Picture: Alamy

A death sentence was imposed on Sandiford despite prosecutors asking only for a 15-year jail term.

Shahabadi had been serving a life sentence since 2014 after being arrested during a probe into an international drug trafficking network.

Indonesia's last executions were carried out in July 2016.