Bali death row drug mule nan Lindsay Sandiford gets 'cuddles and kisses' in prison reunion

Lindsay Sandiford, a Brit drug mule, who has been banged up in an Indonesian hell hole prison for the last 12 years awaiting execution has had an emotional visit from her family

A Brit on death row in an Indonesian hellhole prison has had a bittersweet visit from her family.

Lindsay Sandiford was banged up in the Bali prison after being sentenced to death for smuggling £1.6million worth of cocaine into the country. However, she has always claimed she was forced to do it with death threats to her son.

Lindsay, who has spent more than 12 years waiting for execution, shared "cuddles and kisses" with her grandchildren for the first time in half a decade.

A prison source said: "She was happy and all went well. She met her grandchildren. Normally, these visits are held away from the normal meeting area but still have walls and iron bars with one door.

"There's always one or more guards who are stationed within earshot of the meeting. But she was allowed to hold her family and have cuddles and kisses."

Lidnsay, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, says she was forced by a UK-based drugs syndicate to smuggle cocaine from Thailand to Bali by threats to the life of one of her two sons.

In 2015, she had a heart-wrenching visit from the two-year-old granddaughter she had never met. Little Ayla was born seven months after her grandmother’s arrest in May 2012.

It was recently revealed that there is a chance she might be reprieved and have her sentence downgraded to life behind bars due to a change in Indonesian law.

This could well be the case for Lindsay as she has had over ten years of good behaviour in the prison.

The Mirror reported that she is so convinced that this will happen as she has already started giving her death row clothes to her fellow inmates, believing soon she won't need them.

Indonesia has recently freed other smugglers serving similar sentences as it relaxes its notoriously tough anti-drug laws.

A source said: "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."

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.

And Filipino maid Mary Jane Veloso, 40, was also freed after 15 years. She was originally convicted after being found carrying 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin at Indonesia's Yogyakarta airport.

Lindsay is said to be praying for the same.

If not, she will be sent to Nusa Kambangan, known as "Execution Island".

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