Lindsay Sandiford, 64, was sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2013 after she was caught trying to smuggle £1.6million of cocaine into Bali – and she has spent the last 12 years on death row
A British mother is set to face court today in Bali, accused of smuggling £300,000 worth of cocaine into Indonesia hidden in packets of Angel Delight.
Lisa Stocker, 39, her partner Jon Collyer, 39, both hailing from East Sussex, and Phineas Float, 31, also from East Sussex, could be sentenced to death if found guilty.
Another Briton, Lindsay Sandiford, has been languishing on death row in Bali for the past 12 years after being apprehended with £1.6 million worth of cocaine in her suitcase, which she was attempting to smuggle into Indonesia.
The penalties in Indonesia are harsh – most drug traffickers and dealers receive a death sentence.
The execution method is harrowing – a firing squad. Convicts are led to a grassy area where they can choose to sit or stand before armed soldiers take aim at their hearts, reports the Daily Record.
If a convict survives the firing squad, the commander is then required to shoot them in the head.
Indonesia carries out executions sporadically, with most inmates waiting on death row for over a decade. The last executions in Indonesia occurred in 2015, and 130 people, including Lindsay Sandiford, are currently awaiting execution, 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 house in the town but was evicted when she failed to keep up with rent payments.
The mother-of-two, who had separated from her husband, made the decision to relocate to India in 2012.
However, upon her arrival in Bali from Bangkok, Thailand on May 19, 2012, she was arrested after a substantial amount of cocaine was found in her luggage. Sandiford maintained she had been forced into transporting the Class A drugs by a criminal gang, who had threatened her family’s safety if she didn’t comply.
Yet, when faced with the prospect of a death penalty for drug trafficking, Sandiford dramatically changed her story.
Overwhelmed, she confessed to authorities she had been instructed to carry the drugs by an antiques dealer named Julian Ponder, a British expat living in Bali, and his partner Rachel Dougall.
Sandiford even agreed to take part in a police sting operation to catch Ponder and Dougall, along with a third person, Paul Beales.
After a search of Ponder’s home, both he and Sandiford were charged with drug trafficking.
There was no evidence linking Dougall and Beales to the same crime, resulting in them facing lesser charges.
Sandiford’s legal team argued she had been coerced into carrying the drugs and was struggling with mental health issues.
Despite these arguments, their appeals were dismissed and Sandiford was found guilty – even though the prosecution had recommended a 15-year prison sentence instead of the death penalty.
Dougall was found guilty of failing to report a crime and was sentenced to a year in prison, while Beales was convicted of possessing hashish and handed a four-year sentence.
Ponder was cleared of drug smuggling but was convicted of narcotics possession, leading to a six-year prison term.
Despite pleas from the prosecution, on 22 January 2013, the judges sentenced her to death.
Sandiford lodged an appeal against the verdict, but she had depleted all her resources and couldn’t afford legal representation.
A fundraising campaign successfully gathered enough funds to bring an Indonesian lawyer to Bali for her appeal, which was sadly dismissed.
Sandiford then took her case to the Indonesian Supreme Court, but this appeal was also turned down.
Since then, the grandmother has been held in Kerobokan Prison, Bali.
The prison, originally built to house just 300 inmates, currently accommodates over 1,400 men and women.
Riots and violence from guards are regular events.
While incarcerated, Sandiford spends her time knitting items, which she then sells to raise money for her legal appeals.
She has even started teaching other prisoners how to knit.
However, the stress of spending such a lengthy period on death row is affecting Sandiford, who became friends with suitcase murderer Heather Mack during her time in prison.
Mack served a 10-year sentence for the murder of her mother, whose body was subsequently stuffed into a suitcase by her boyfriend.
Mack received a decade-long sentence while her partner Tommy Schaefer was incarcerated for 18 years in 2015 after their conviction for the murder of Sheila von Wiese-Mack.
Mack observed fellow inmate Sandiford had become more reclusive during her time behind bars.
Mack commented: “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 mingle as much with the other prisoners.
“She snaps at me for no reason but I still make an effort with her.”
In conversation with Mack, Lindsay shared the chilling moment when the grim reality of her situation dawned on her after two fellow inmates were abruptly executed for drug offences.
Mack relayed Lindsay’s anguish: “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 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 ultimate wish has become her single focus, as Lindsay herself declared: “She has said she wants to die.”
Lindsay confided to 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.”
Holding a defiant stance, Lindsay also expressed that, even though she faces the death penalty, she feels “blessed” for having witnessed her two sons mature and for meeting her grandchildren.
She asserts her unyielding spirit further, stating: “My attitude is ‘If you want to shoot me, shoot me. Get on with it’.”
Lindsay Sandiford continues to await her fate on death row.