Jakarta. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has thanked President Prabowo Subianto for sending home two Britons jailed for drug offenses as part of a prisoner transfer deal.

The inmates -- one on death row -- had both flown from Bali to their home country early on Friday. The 68-year-old Lindsay Sandiford had spent over a decade in a Bali prison after being given a death sentence for drug smuggling in 2013. Shahab Shahabadi (35) had been serving a life sentence since 2014. During a live-streamed press conference sometime around the repatriation flight, Britain’s deputy ambassador Matthew Downing expressed his country’s “sincerest gratitude” to the Prabowo government.

“Prime Minister Starmer has personally thanked President Prabowo for the support and compassion,” Downing said.

The diplomat went on to say how the deal reflected the “close ties between the two nations and people”.

Indonesian authorities named humanitarian grounds as the reason behind the transfer, citing the prisoners’ ailing conditions. Both governments had signed the repatriation agreement on moving the prisoners to British custody on Oct. 2025.

“Indonesia ensures that every procedure for prisoner transfers across borders takes place in an accountable and transparent manner. The move should also comply with the existing legal standards,” senior government official I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram said.

“Our approach is not only oriented towards law enforcement, but also considers humanitarian elements and the protection of human rights.”

Local authorities had caught Sandiford hiding cocaine worth over $2 million in a suitcase at the time of her arrest. Sandiford claimed that she had agreed to carry the suitcase after a gang threatened to kill her son. Shahabadi wound up behind bars as part of an investigation into an international drug trafficking network. He had sent 30 kilograms of methamphetamine powder from Iran to Jakarta, before finally arriving in the Indonesian capital himself.

Indonesia has one of the world’s toughest drug laws, but the country had agreed to let some foreign prisoners leave the country under Prabowo. About two months after Prabowo assumed power, Indonesia sent home Flipina prisoner Mary Jane Veloso. A similar transfer arrangement took place involving Serge Atlaoui, an ailing French national, in February. Both were on Indonesian death row for drug offenses.

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