British drug-smuggling gran on death row could be spared firing squad on one condition
22 March 2024, 13:53
Drug smuggler grandmother Lindsay Sandiford could be spared a firing squad if she survives another year in prison under a new Indonesian law.
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Prison officials met the grandmother, 67, in her death row cell at Bali’s hellhole Kerobokan jail this week where it is understood they confirmed the new legislation which could reduce Sandiford’s sentence from the death penalty to a jail term.
A prison source told The Mirror: “All people with a death sentence had a visit from the department that deals with inmates. They were informed the authorities would be implementing the new law.
"Those with a capital punishment sentence should then have it commuted to a prison term. It means if Lindsay can survive until 2025 she will never be shot.”
Sandiford, a legal secretary from Cheltenham, should qualify as she has managed more than 10 years’ good behaviour behind bars.
An Indonesian woman jailed for corruption revealed Sandiford gets special treatment behind bars.
She said: “She is the grandmother of the prison, the queen. She is the only one who can order steak from the prison cafe. She has it medium-rare, normally once a week. Everyone loves her… she teaches people how to knit, she hosts classes.”
Sandiford was caught flying into Bali with 10.16 lb of the Class A drug worth £1.6million.
Having had no previous convictions, she claimed 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 Britain.
Despite cooperating with authorities in a sting to arrest those higher up the syndicate, she was handed a death sentence.
Human rights lawyers and former UK Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald say she had been treated with "quite extraordinary severity".
