Lindsay Sandiford flying home TODAY as drugs mule gran spared firing squad

Drugs mule gran Lindsay Sandiford will board a flight home today, it has been revealed. The 69-year-old pensioner, who in 2013 had been handed the death penalty in Indonesia, is set to leave Bali on Thursday afternoon.

Following a 20-hour flight, including a layover, Sandiford will reach London Heathrow Airport, returning home for the first time in over a decade, the Mirror reports. It marks the harrowing end for the grandma in which she has spent 13 years awaiting execution for smuggling £1.6million of cocaine into Indonesia. During the trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that threatened her children.

She was sentenced to die by firing squad and Indonesia's highest court upheld it in 2013 - a surprising outcome despite prosecutors asking for a 15-year jail term.

But now after more than a decade inside Bali's infamous Kerobokan Jail Lindsay who is said to be "extremely unwell" will make the long journey home this afternoon.

A source said: "Lindsay is extremely unwell. She is desperate to get home and to be with her family. More than a decade in one of the world's worst prisons has taken its toll on her and she wants nothing more than to get back to the UK."

She will be joined by British national Shahab Shahabadi, 35, who was detained in June 2014 and is serving a life sentence for drug offences.

Pastor Christine Buckingham - who visited Sandiford in Kerobokan jail last week - told the Mirror: She's very unwell. The most important thing is that she gets home, we need her to be checked medically and then the plan is that she says she will spend as much time as she can with her family."

Last month the Indonesian minister for law and human rights, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said he had signed a deal with British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper for the transfer of the pair.

Sources in Indonesia say Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Cooper made a personal plea to the Indonesian authorities for the grandmothers release.

"We agreed to grant the transfers of the prisoners to the UK. The agreement has been signed," Mr Yusril said.

Sandiford was arrested at a time when the Indonesian authorities were imposing tougher penalties on drug smugglers and in 2015 two Australian men were executed after being convicted of smuggling heroin. However, Indonesia hasn't carried out any form of execution since 2016.

Approximately 530 people including 96 foreigners are on death row in Indonesia, mainly on drugs related charges.