In a hellish Bali prison, a British smuggling granny is executed by firing squad after being caught with 1.6 million pounds of cocaine in her suitcase.
Lindsay Sandiford, 64, awaits the date of her execution in one of Indonesia’s toughest prisons and site of many deadly riots, ironically known as Hotel K.
The grandmother of two was imprisoned in Kerobokan Prison in 2013 after she was found with £1.6 million worth of cocaine in her suitcase.
Drug courier Sandiford, who was caught flying from Bangkok to Bali in 2012 with 10.16 pounds of cocaine, has now served 10 years on death row.
Smugglers are severely punished in the country, as about 80% of the prison population is incarcerated on drug charges awaiting execution. according to the Mirror.
Lindsay Sandiford, to be executed by firing squad after being caught with 1.6 million pounds of cocaine in her suitcase in 2012
The 62-year-old from Yorkshire has been on death row for a decade at Bali’s grim Kerobokan prison, ironically known as Hotel K (pictured)
She awaits the date of her execution in one of the toughest prisons in Indonesia and the site of many deadly riots, ironically known as Hotel K
The Briton, from Yorkshire, who has not previously been convicted, claimed she was forced by a UK-based drug syndicate to smuggle cocaine from Thailand to Bali by threatening the life of one of her two sons in Britain.
She was given the death penalty despite cooperating with police to arrest people higher up the syndicate, sparking outrage from human rights lawyers and former British prosecutor Ken Macdonald, who said she had been treated with “quite extraordinary severity”.
She will be transferred to Nusa Kambangan – known as Execution Island – and shot by firing squad at midnight with up to a dozen other convicted prisoners when and if her death sentence is carried out
The UK government has repeatedly refused to fund Sandiford’s appeal, despite a ruling by London High Court judges who said “substantial mitigating factors” had been overlooked in her original trial.
The alleged leader of the syndicate, Julian Ponder, 50, from Brighton, was released from Kerobokan Prison in late 2017 after rumors that more than £1 million in bribes had been paid to clear the trafficking charges against Ponder, his former partner Rachel Dougall and fellow Brit Paul Beales to withdraw. Dougall was imprisoned for a year and Beales for four years for involvement in the conspiracy.
Sandiford could be executed at any time after he fails to make a final appeal, but said: ‘I really can’t stand asking someone for help or having to deal with another lawyer. I just can’t stand it. I’ve been burned enough times already.
“I’ve had ten different lawyers. If I really focused on the legal process, I would get angry and bitter and that would be destructive.”
Sandiford said she didn’t want the State Department’s help after the crushing fiasco of Harahap’s shady dealings with Ponder. “If they got involved, they’d probably have me shot even faster,” she said.
Sandiford, now gray-haired and suffering from arthritis, spends her days knitting in the cramped five-by-five-foot cell she shares with four other female inmates, most of them low-skilled local women convicted of drug offenses
Julian Ponder, 50, from Brighton (pictured) was the alleged leader of the drug smuggling syndicate Sandiford was involved in, but he was released from Kerobokan Prison in late 2017
Sandiford (pictured left with her eldest son and right in her early years) will be transferred to Nusa Kambangan – known as Execution Island – and shot by firing squad at midnight with a dozen other convicted prisoners when and if her death sentence is carried out out
Sandiford met one of her granddaughters (pictured) while awaiting her fate in prison
Her last contact with British officials was a letter from the holiday island’s new British vice-consul, John Makin, in October 2016 asking her to contact him if she needed help. Sandiford didn’t answer.
Now gray-haired and suffering from arthritis, Sandiford spends days at a time knitting in the cramped five-by-five-foot cell prison she shares with four other female inmates, most of them low-skilled local women convicted of drug offenses.
The grandmother’s last wish in life is to simply die fighting it out in the grotesquely overcrowded prison.
The prison houses 1,300 inmates – four times as many people as the prison was built in 1979 – and was previously described by inmates as a “hellhole” with frequent “murders, rapes, drug overdoses and bashings.”
Prisoners move a metal gate at Kerobokan Prison, where it is reportedly rife with drugs and crime
The prison houses 1,300 prisoners – four times as many people as the prison was built in 1979
It has previously been described by inmates as a ‘hellhole’ with frequent ‘murders, rapes, drug overdoses and bashings’
Prisoners could be seen competing for space in the overcrowded prison
The prison houses 1,300 prisoners – four times the number of people the prison was built for
Despite the huge number of inmates waiting to serve their death sentences for drug smuggling, the last time the prison carried out a death sentence was in 2015
Prisoners have a choice of sitting or standing when armed officers aim their shots at the heart
Announcements and sirens over loudspeakers scream every day and prisoners constantly compete for space in the overcrowded cells.
Rachel Dougall, who was sentenced to a year in filthy prison for failing to press charges, told Daily Mail Australia in March 2017 that she suffered a mental breakdown while indoors after being locked up with drug addicts, HIV-positive inmates and sexually assaulted abuse. aggressive lesbians.
‘Most women used drugs almost daily. If you had money, the guards would give you anything you wanted,’ she said.
“Inmates in the men’s prison next door even paid prostitutes for late-night visits.”
She claimed she was incarcerated with drug addicts, HIV positive inmates and sexually aggressive lesbians.
She also said she was beaten several times before being released in May 2013.
Other inmates have claimed the lock-up is filled with crime and drugs.
Due to the stormy conditions, many people have successfully escaped the ‘hellhole’ as four people escaped in 2017 by digging a tunnel under the walls from a courtyard.
Despite the huge number of inmates awaiting death sentences for drug smuggling, the last time the prison carried out a death sentence was in 2015.
Prisoners have a choice of sitting or standing when armed officers aim their shots at the heart. If a prisoner survives, a commander will shoot him in the head.
