A 68-year-old British grandmother with initials LS, who was sentenced to death back in 2013 for smuggling cocaine into Bali, is among two United Kingdom nationals to be repatriated following a new prisoner transfer agreement between Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
LS was sentenced to death back in 2013 after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine worth approximately US$2.14 million (around Rp35.5 billion) into Bali on a flight from Thailand back in 2012. Customs officers discovered the drugs concealed in a false compartment at the bottom of her suitcase.
During her trial, LS pleaded guilty and claimed that she had been coerced into transporting the drugs after members of an international syndicate threatened to kill her son. Her appeal in 2013 was subsequently rejected by the court.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, announced that he had signed an agreement with the British Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, concerning the transfer of LS as well as another foreigner with initials SS. The latter is a 35-year-old man who has been serving a life sentence for drug offences since 2014.
The two prisoners, hence, will be handed over to the United Kingdom once all technical arrangements for the transfer have been finalised.
“We have agreed to approve the transfer of the prisoners to the United Kingdom. The agreement has been signed,” Mahendra said during a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.
LS’s repatriation marks the fourth instance of the Indonesian government, under the Prabowo Subianto presidential administration, repatriating foreign drug convicts to their respective home countries. Previous cases include MJV from the Philippines and five members of the Bali Nine who were sent back to Australia in December 2024, as well as SA, who was repatriated to France in February 2025.