Death Row Gran’s fresh hope she will avoid firing squad
LINDSAY Sandiford, a grandmother from Cheltenham on death row for drug smuggling, finally has a glimmer of hope after more than 10 years.
She might avoid the firing squad due to a law change in Indonesia, where she’s been held since 2013 for trying to sneak £1.6 million worth of cocaine into the country in her suitcase.
Her fellow prisoners have shared her hopes of freedom and a photo of Sandiford teaching others to knit. One cellmate has revealed that the 67-year-old is known as the “grandmother” and enjoys special treats, including medium-rare steak dinners.
The new law, coming into effect in January, could turn her death sentence into a life term because she’s shown good behaviour for more than 10 years. Her lawyers could then argue for her return to the UK, where she might be released based on the time she’s already served in Indonesia, reports The Mirror.
One inmate said: “There is hope that she can go home. If she can get through to 2025 then she thinks she may be able to avoid the death penalty.”
In another development, British officials have increased their visits from four times a year to once a month. Human rights barrister Felicity Gerry KC, who visited Sandiford in 2015, is calling for her to be returned to Britain.
She said: “Indonesia is taking an important step in recognising the need to commute the sentences of those subject to the death penalty, especially women. Lindsay co-operated with the authorities and explained levels of coercion that should have at least mitigated her position.
“The Government should be taking active steps to facilitate her return to the UK, either to serve a sentence near her family or to consider her release.”
The Mirror got a look inside Kerobokan jail in Bali, where Sandiford waits every day to be taken from her ratinfested cell to Nusa Kambangan known as Execution Island. The legal secretary from Gloucestershire is the only prisoner on death row.
She seems to have given up all hope of an appeal to change her sentence, until now. A photo of Sandiford in prison shows other inmates paying close attention as she teaches them how to use knitting needles.
Her cellmate, an Indonesian woman jailed for corruption who has been with Sandiford for two years, said: “She is the grandmother of the prison, the Queen. She is the only one who can order steak from the prison cafe.
“She eats it medium-rare, usually once a week. Everyone likes her, she teaches knitting, holds classes often, and shows them how to take care of themselves.
“No date has been set for the execu
tion. She is scared of dying but she has accepted it.”
However, other prisoners say Sandiford is “foul-mouthed, antagonistic” and makes her cellmates want to leave. A former cellmate who was with her for six months said: “Lindsay is aggressively protective of herself.
“That’s the way she has learned to cope. She spends 99 per cent of her time in her room. They have activities, like nail painting or hair styling, but Lindsay does none of them. There was a Ukrainian girl who was put in her cell, but the girl requested to move.
“The way I read her is that she’s trying to survive. She started getting privileges, so all the girls slept on the floor but she got a mattress. And then she got cooking utensils because she didn’t like the prison food. Lindsay has a sweet tooth, she likes 70 per cent dark chocolate.
“She’d be brought chocolate and fresh vegetables from supporters. I think the prison recognised that she’s not a young woman, and she came from the West. But being in Kerobokan is very difficult. If you go in as a smart person, you come out half as smart. There’s nothing to fire the neutrons while you’re in jail.”
After her arrest in 2012 with a large amount of class A drugs, Sandiford said drug lords had threatened her son which made her do it. She changed her story when she found out she could face the death penalty.
Sandiford told the police that she had been asked to transport the drugs by Julian Ponder. She agreed to a sting operation, in which she would help capture the British antiques dealer.
Still, she was brought up on charges herself. At the time, Ponder, who was 43 and from Brighton, was found not guilty of smuggling. However, he was found guilty of having 23g of cocaine.
The judge sentenced him to six years in prison and fined him £65,000.
A spokesperson from the Foreign Office said: “We are supporting a British woman detained in Bali and are in contact with her family and the Indonesian authorities.”