British diplomats were stunned when Indonesia demanded the return of the UK’s biggest serial rapist in exchange for a granny who spent 13 years on Death Row.
Drugs mule Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was days from release in Bali before Indonesia suddenly tried to link her return to the UK repatriating Reynhard Sinaga, who raped 136 young men in Manchester.
Sandiford’s freedom was then delayed by eight months before she flew to Britain last weekend.
Britain insisted her release was unconditional and rejected the deal which would have seen Sinaga fly home and potentially walk free five years after being convicted.
Sinaga, 42, whose father is a wealthy property tycoon and former banker, was jailed for a minimum 40 years for 159 sex offences including 136 rapes of young men between 2015 and ’17.
A PhD student bankrolled by his parents, he preyed on young men leaving clubs, luring them to his Manchester city centre flat before drugging and raping them, videoing the attacks on his phone.
He was caught when an 18-year-old rugby player he drugged regained consciousness and fought him off. Police found videos of scores of assaults on mostly heterosexual men who only realised they were victims when officers contacted them.
The demand for Sinaga’s release was made in March as British officials in Indonesia prepared to repatriate Sandiford – sentenced to death in 2012 for smuggling £1.6million of cocaine – in an amnesty for vulnerable foreign prisoners.
Sandiford had been told she was days from leaving notorious Kerobokan jail when the talks were derailed by the demand, which she said left diplomats ‘gobsmacked’.
She said: ‘I’d given all my things away to fellow prisoners and they even told me the flight I’d be on.
‘Then, when they went to sign the documents for me to come home, the Indonesians said, “No, no, we don’t want to just let her go home. We want a prisoner swap”.’
Britain refused the demand outright. Sandiford, who was visited by consular officials and informed of the negotiations, described the delay to her release as a ‘torture’ but says she understood a prisoner exchange was impossible.
She said: ‘Sinaga is never going to get out. People in Britain would be horrified if they let him go.’
His parents have lobbied government officials for their son to be returned to Indonesia to supposedly complete his sentence.
Senior Indonesian minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said in February that he wanted Sinaga back but has never publicly linked the case to Sandiford.
Sandiford cooperated with police after her arrest and took part in a sting operation that led to the arrest of three Britons suspected to be higher up in the drugs syndicate.
The three other Britons – Julian Ponder, Paul Beales and Rachel Dougall – were jailed for between one and six years while Sandiford was given the death penalty, despite the prosecutor only requesting a 15-year term.
Sandiford, who has diabetes and high blood pressure and has difficulty walking after years in a cramped cell, flew back to be reunited with a son and grandchildren at a London hotel room paid for by a prisoner charity.
