DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian government official said Thursday that two British citizens imprisoned on drug charges in Bali are going to be repatriated within hours following an .
, 69, was arrested in 2012 and was on death row for drug offenses; she therefore avoids execution with the deal. Shahab Shahabadi, 35, has been serving a life sentence since 2014.
The two will be on a flight leaving Bali early Friday, according to the official, Yusril Ihza Mahendra. He told The Associated Press that the two will fly shortly after midnight to Dubai before continuing to London.
Mahendra, who is the coordinating minister for law, human rights, immigration and correctional institutions, has previously said the two convicts had serious health problems.
The agreement to transfer them was signed by Mahendra and British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on Oct. 21.
Sandiford, was arrested in May 2012 after arriving in Bali on a flight from Bangkok. Authorities found 3.8 kilograms (8.4 pounds) of cocaine worth $2.5 million hidden in the lining of her suitcase. During her trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that threatened her children.
In January 2013 she was by firing squad and Indonesia’s highest court upheld it seven months later. She has been imprisoned in Kerobokan prison on Bali island.
The severity of the sentence met with shock because prosecutors had not recommended the death penalty for her. The ruling was condemned by the British government and anti-death sentence activists.
Shahabadi, 35, has been serving a life sentence since 2014. He was arrested in Jakarta as part of an investigation into an international drug trafficking network. Prosecutors said he sent 30 kilograms (15 pounds) of methamphetamine powder in several shipments from Iran to his partner for distribution in Jakarta, before finally arriving in Jakarta himself.
Shahabadi has been imprisoned in Nusa Kambangan prison island, known as the Alcatraz of Indonesia, since 2014 and was moved Thursday to Bali ahead of his repatriation.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.
About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including nearly 100 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data shows. , of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.
Indonesia under President Prabowo Subianto has sent several foreign prisoners home under bilateral agreements with their countries. They included for drugs and convicted of heroin trafficking, and on death row who has spent almost 20 years in an Indonesian prison for drug offenses.
Subianto surprised the nation barely two months after he took office in October by saying he planned to grant clemency to some 44,000 inmates nationwide — some of them imprisoned for political reasons — as a way to help unify the country. prisons in August.
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Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan and Andi Jatmiko contributed to this report.
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