Shock health battle of Brit gran who’s spent 12 years on death row in Bali will FINALLY be sent back to UK

A “SERIOUSLY ill” British drugs gran is to be flown home to the UK after spending 12 years on death row in Bali.

Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was sentenced to death after she was caught with £1.6million of cocaine in her suitcase.

Brit Lindsay Sandiford is returning to the UK after 12 years on death row in Bali

Sandiford seen at a news conference at the Customs Office at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali back in 2012Credit: Reuters

She had been facing execution by firing squad as part of Indonesia’s tough drug crackdown.

But she will now be freed after a dramatic deal was struck between the Foreign Office and Indonesia.

Officials in Bali said Lindsay was “seriously ill”.

She is likely to be transferred from the notorious Kerobokan prison in the coming days ahead of her return to the UK.

A second British prisoner, Shahab Shahabadi, 35, will also be freed from a life sentence for drug offences as part of the deal.

Lindsay, of Redcar, Teesside, admitted drug trafficking charges but claimed she agreed to carry the haul after a crime gang threatened to kill her son. 

An Indonesian government minister said it could take up to two weeks for her to be released.

He said: “We agreed to grant the transfers of the prisoners to the UK. 

“The agreement has been signed.

“Lindsay has been examined by our doctor, as well as by the doctor from the British consulate in Bali, and is seriously ill.”

On Tuesday, an agreement was signed by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Indonesia’s Senior Minister of Law Yusril Ihza Mahendra, which means Sandiford and Shahabadi will return to UK.

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

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

Speaking after signing the agreement, Ms Cooper said: “Both of them are facing problems.

“The first one is ill and has been examined by a doctor from the British Consulate in Bali. She is seriously ill.”

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

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office 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 appealed her sentence on two separate occasions.

Once with the High Court in Bali and then again with the Indonesian Supreme Court but both were swiftly rejected.

After the failed attempts, Sandiford came out to say she had accepted dying in prison.

When asked if she feared the firing squad, Sandiford told the MailOnline: “It won’t be a hard thing for me to face anymore.

“Dying doesn’t bother me. I never thought I’d last this long to be honest.”

Sandiford, originally from Redcar in Teeside, said she was going to sing the Perry Como hit Magic Moments in her final moments to stay positive.

Indonesia hasn’t carried out any form of execution since 2016.

They killed one of its own citizens and three Nigerian drug convicts by firing squad.

While inside the hellish Kerobokan prison other inmates are said to have branded her as “foul mouthed” and “antagonistic”.

She was forced to endure a life of pain after developing arthritis while locked away inside a cramped 16ft-by-16ft cell she shares with four other female prisoners.

Sandiford weeped in court as she heard her sentencing in 2013Credit: AFP

Sandiford was sentenced to death in Bali in January 2013 for drug trafficking after she was found with cocaine worth an estimated £1.6 millionCredit: PA:Press Association

Sandiford playing with one of her granddaughtersCredit: Rex Features

But due to the longevity of her sentence, Sandiford is said to have been allowed to lead a knitting class, report the Daily Mail.

The move to send back Sandiford and fellow con Shahabadi follows a slew of high-profile foreign inmates being shipped back home in Indonesia.

President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has started to repatriate many criminals sentenced to life over drug offences over the past 10 months.

In February, Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, 61, was sent home after 18 years on death row.

And in December, Filipino Mary Jane Veloso reunited with her family after nearly 15 years on death row in tearful scenes.

It is believed that almost 90 prisoners on death row in Indonesia are foreigners, according to Indonesia’s Immigration and Corrections Ministry.