Jakarta. Senior minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra revealed on Tuesday that the government would work on the repatriation of British prisoner Lindsay Sandiford within the next three days, signalling that the elderly woman would fly back to her UK home this week.

Sandiford has remained behind bars in Bali since being sentenced to death for drug smuggling in 2013. Local authorities had found cocaine worth over $2 million hidden in her suitcase. Sandiford, now in her late 60s, claimed that a gang had forced her to carry the drug as her son’s life was on the line. 

The Indonesian and British governments recently reached an agreement to repatriate Sandiford and Shahab Shahabadi, another Briton serving a life sentence for drug charges since 2014. Both governments recently reached an agreement on the technical arrangements for transferring the two inmates to British custody.

“We have signed the deal, and all that remains is the technical implementation. … We have made a deal with the UK government that they would pick up [Sandiford and Shahabadi] within these two or three days,” Yusril told the press in Jakarta.

They are expected to depart from Denpasar and transit via Dubai before setting foot in the UK.

Under President Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia has sent back some foreign prisoners, including the famous Filipina drug convict Mary Jane Veloso and the ailing French national Serge Atlaoui. The Frenchman had long been on death row for alleged drug offenses. The Southeast Asian nation has some of the world’s toughest drug laws. 

Yusril admitted that Indonesia, to this day, had not brought back its prisoners from overseas. He signalled that the government would try to repatriate some of its prisoners starting next year, but denied that there were such plans for the serial rapist Reinhard Sinaga. The young man is now serving a life sentence in the UK’s high-security prison HMP Wakefield, which has gained the moniker “Monster Mansion”.

“To this day, we have not had any official talks with the British government on whether he [Reynhard] should be transferred to Indonesia,” Yusril said.

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