A grandma who spent 12 years on death row in Indonesia is to return to the UK after 12 years incarceration.
As part of an agreement signed by the Indonesian government, Lindsay Sandiford will be repatriated alongside fellow Brit Shahab Shahabadi. An Indonesian official today said: "The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed."
The mother-of-two - a former legal secretary from Redcar in the North East - was issued a death sentence in 2013 after being found carrying cocaine worth $2.14million hidden in the false bottom of her suitcase when she arrived from Thailand a year earlier.
Sandiford has escaped a brutal death as Indonesia uses firing squad to kill its convicts. Inmates are led to a grassy area, where they are given the choice of sitting or standing in front of a group of armed soldiers aiming at their heart.
If the condemned survives the initial volley of bullets, the group's commander is deployed to fire a fatal shot to the head.
Executions in Indonesia are carried out infrequently, with most inmates waiting on death row for over a decade. The last executions in Indonesia occurred in 2015 and currently, 130 people, including Sandiford, are awaiting their fate, according to Mirror reports.
The former legal secretary relocated to India in 2012 after being evicted from her rented home in Cheltenham. Upon her arrival in Bali from Bangkok in Thailand on 19 May 2012, she was arrested after a large amount of cocaine was found in her luggage. Sandiford maintained that she had been forced to carry the Class A drugs by a criminal gang, who had threatened her family if she didn't comply.
But, the grandmother dramatically changed her story when she was told a conviction for drug trafficking would lead to the death penalty. Overwhelmed, she admitted to officers that she had been asked to transport the drugs by an antiques dealer named Julian Ponder, a Brit living in Bali, and his partner Rachel Dougall.
Sandiford even agreed to take part in a police sting operation to catch the pair, along with a third person, Paul Beales. After a search of Ponder's home, both he and Sandiford were charged with drug trafficking.
There was no evidence linking Dougall and Beales to the same crime, resulting in them being charged with lesser offences.
Sandiford's legal team argued that she had been forced into transporting the drugs and was dealing with mental health problems. Their appeals were dismissed and she was found guilty - even though the prosecution had requested a 15-year prison sentence instead of the death penalty.
Dougall was found guilty of failing to report a crime and was sentenced to a year behind bars, while Beales was convicted of possessing hashish and handed a four-year sentence.
Ponder was cleared of drug smuggling but was found guilty of narcotics possession, resulting in a six-year prison term. Despite the prosecution's pleas, on 22 January 2013, judges handed her a death sentence.
Sandiford lodged an appeal against the decision, but she had depleted all her funds and couldn't afford legal representation. A fundraising campaign successfully gathered enough money to fly an Indonesian lawyer to Bali for her appeal, which was sadly dismissed.
Sandiford then took her case to the Indonesian Supreme Court, but this appeal was also turned down. Since then, the grandmother has been held in Kerobokan Prison, Bali.
The decision to free her comes after Bali relaxed its notoriously strict drug smuggling laws. The new legislation meant Sandiford - who had served more than 10 years behind bars with good behaviour - was an ideal inmate to be released. Indonesia has recently freed other smugglers serving similar sentences.
And it's understood that Sandiford is so confident in her chances of walking free, she's started giving away her clothes to fellow inmates.
Earlier this year, a source told the Mirror: "For a long time Lindsay was resigned to her fate, but now she's dreaming of freedom. Foreign Office officials have spent a lot of time visiting her in prison, and they're working hard to secure her freedom."
Earlier this year, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's administration has moved to repatriate several high-profile drug offenders back to their home countries. This includes Serge Atlaoui, who was returned to France back in February on 'humanitarian grounds' due to illness.
In February, Pilipino maid Mary Jane Veloso, 40, also tasted freedom for the first time in 15 years after she was found carrying 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin at Indonesia's Yogyakarta airport.
And five members of the notorious Bali Nine were freed in December despite being convicted of trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin out of Indonesia in April 2005.