Lindsay Sandiford has been on death row awaiting execution for the last 12 years but could be back in the UK in weeks
Brit gran Lindsay Sandiford, has been enduring life on death row in Bali for the past 12 years after she was apprehended with a £1.6million cache of cocaine in her luggage, which she attempted to smuggle into Indonesia.
She has now been told by the Indonesian government that she can return to the UK. She will be returned to Britain within weeks, along with British national Shahab Shahabadi.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting two British Nationals detained in Indonesia and are in close contact with the Indonesian authorities to discuss their return to the UK.”
The punishments in Indonesia are severe – most drug traffickers and dealers receive the death sentence.
The method of execution is chilling – a firing squad. Convicts are led to a grassy area where they can choose to sit or stand before armed soldiers aim at their hearts, as reported by the Daily Record.
If a convict survives the firing squad, the commander is then given the grim task of delivering a lethal shot to the head.
Indonesia doesn’t frequently carry out executions, with most inmates left to languish on death row for over a decade. The last executions in Indonesia took place in 2015, and currently, 130 people, which until this week included Lindsay Sandiford, are on death row, according to the Mirror.
Sandiford, a former legal secretary from Redcar in the North East, had spent many years working in management at a law firm in Cheltenham. She rented a property in the town but was evicted when she failed to keep up with the rent.
The mother-of-two, who had separated from her husband, decided to move to India in 2012.
However, upon arriving in Bali from Bangkok, Thailand, on 19 May 2012, she was arrested after cocaine was discovered in her luggage. Sandiford insisted that she’d been coerced into smuggling the Class A drugs by a criminal gang, who threatened her family’s safety if she didn’t comply.
But when confronted with the harsh reality of a death sentence for drug trafficking, the grandmother dramatically changed her plea.
Overwhelmed with fear, she confessed to the police she’d been manipulated into transporting the drugs by an antiques dealer named Julian Ponder, a Brit residing in Bali, and his partner Rachel Dougall.
Sandiford even agreed to participate in a police sting operation to catch the couple, along with another man, Paul Beales.
Following a raid on Ponder’s residence, both he and Sandiford were charged with drug trafficking.
There was no evidence linking Dougall and Beales to the same crime, leading to them facing lesser charges.
Sandiford’s legal team argued that she’d been forced into carrying the drugs and was struggling with mental health issues.
Despite their pleas, their appeals were ignored and she was convicted – even though the prosecution had only requested a 15-year prison term instead of the death penalty.
Dougall was imprisoned for a year after being found guilty of failing to report a crime, while Beales received a four-year sentence for hashish possession.
Ponder was cleared of drug smuggling charges but received a six-year sentence for narcotics possession. Despite the prosecution’s pleas for mercy, on 22 January 2013, judges delivered a death sentence to Sandiford. Sandiford attempted to contest the decision, but she lacked the funds for a legal team.
A fundraising campaign successfully raised enough money to bring an Indonesian brief to Bali for her appeal, which was unfortunately dismissed. She then took her case to the Indonesian Supreme Court, but this appeal too was disregarded.
Since then, the grandmother has been incarcerated in Kerobokan Prison, Bali, until the latest development in her case. The prison, originally designed to house just 300 inmates, is now overflowing with over 1,400 men and women. Riots and beatings from guards are all too frequent.
To keep herself occupied, Sandiford knits items, which she sells to finance her legal fights. She has even begun teaching her fellow prisoners how to knit. However, the strain of being on death row for such a prolonged period is affecting Sandiford, who formed a friendship with suitcase murderer Heather Mack during her time inside.
Mack was sentenced to 10 years for killing her mother, whose body was then hidden in a suitcase by her boyfriend. Mack received a 10-year sentence, while her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer was given an 18-year term in 2015 after they were found guilty of murdering Sheila von Wiese-Mack.
Mack observed that Sandiford had become increasingly isolated during her time in prison. Mack said: “I am friends with Lindsay but she has been difficult to speak to recently. She spends all day pretty much alone in her cell and doesn’t mix so much with the other prisoners. She snaps at me for no reason but I still make an effort with her.”
During discussions with Mack, Lindsay revealed the terrifying moment she truly understood the horrific nature of her situation, after watching two fellow inmates being suddenly executed for drug-related crimes.
Mack conveyed Lindsay’s distress: “They had turned their lives around and were different people to when they were convicted, so everyone thought they would be OK. When Lindsay saw that even they could be taken away and killed, she knew it would be happening to her. That’s when it really, really hit home for her.”
Lindsay’s final desire has now become her sole preoccupation, as Lindsay herself admitted: “She has said she wants to die.” She told Mack: “It won’t be a hard thing for me to face anymore. It’s not particularly a death I would choose but then again I wouldn’t choose dying in agony from cancer either.
“I do feel I can cope with it. But when it happens I don’t want my family to come. I don’t want any fuss at all. The one thing certain about life is no one gets out alive.”
Lindsay also voiced a feeling of thankfulness, saying she feels “blessed” to have watched her two sons mature and meet her grandchildren.
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