British citizen Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death by firing squad by Bali’s District Court in Denpasar for drug trafficking.
Sandiford, 56, who was arrested at Bali airport in May 2012, was found in possession of 4.8kg of cocaine, which she had placed in the lining of her suitcase to deceive Bali’s strict customs officers.
Formerly of Gloucestershire, Sandiford told the court she had been forced into drugs trafficking by drug barons who has threatened the lives of her children.
The courtroom was stunned by the verdict, which will see Sandiford executed for her crimes that normally receive a 15-year prison sentence. While there are currently a number of British citizens serving drugs sentences on death row, but it was previously thought that many would be released after serving a portion of their sentence.
However, judges on the Sandiford case said there were ‘no mitigating circumstances,’ despite claims Sandiford was coerced, and they said she ‘did not appear to care about the consequences of her actions.’
The consequences, as described by the judges were concerned with damage to Bali’s image as a tourist destination and ‘weakened the government’s anti-drugs programme.’
At the time of Sandiford’s arrest she was considered to have been the centre of a drugs trafficking ring along with three other British citizens.
Julian Ponder from Brighton, who was arrested around the same time as Sandiford, is believed to have collected cocaine from her, for which he was given a sentence of just six years.
The British human right’s charity Reprieve has called the sentence ‘deplorable’ and have said Sandiford was “targeting by drug traffickers who exploited her vulnerability and made threats against her children.”
Sandiford has appealed to the foreign office for help but she does not have the finances to continue a legal battle for her life.
“Without the government’s help,” said a Reprieve spokesperson, “Ms Sandiford faces being executed by firing squad.
Source: The Guardian
Re Sandiford she says she was ‘coerced’ and that ‘she had been forced into drugs trafficking by drug barons who has threatened the lives of her children’. How can this be, she must have been involved in drugs in someway for her to know the drug barons and for them to know her.
She is also of an old were she should know the rulings about drugs, both in the UK and Bali.
She has, as stated by the judges that she ‘did not appear to care about the consequences of her actions.’
She was prepared to commit the crime, but not accept the consequences.
Her punishment may be way too much, but who are we to interfere in the court rulings of Bali, if this had been the UK, we would not want interference from another country in our rulings. Just because we do not now have the death penalty is not relevant.
All the Foreign Office can do, is ask the Bali administration to reconsider, but,. in no way should UK money be spent on any legal proceedings.
If the British human right’s charity Reprieve, feel so strongly on this, then let them fund what they feel is required.
Lets face it if we interfere too much, are we saying her actions were right.
As I believe all who come to the UK should respect our laws, then so should we when we go to another country. Just because we may not think they are right or unjust is no way to ignore them.
It is a pity that criminals in the UK do not accept punishment for their wrong doings, but immediately raise human rights issues or someone creates an excuse for their actions. There are no excuses for breaking the law in any country.
In response to your first comment, I believe the ‘drugs barons’ were associated with her son and she became involved when he went to his mother for help. This does not mean that she was directly involved with these criminals, it does however clearly support her theory that she was doing this to protect her family.
It is easy to pass judgement on this woman as you sit at home and read about it but until you’ve been in a situation where your own safety or that of your loved ones is threatened then I do not believe you are in any position to pass judgement. Only those directly involved know what really happened and to be executed for such a crime when the British couple, known as the king and queen of Bali, were living a wealthy life on the island – clearly funded by drugs money – escape with only minor prison terms, is completely absurd.
This woman is a citizen of the UK and the government of a different country has no moral right to declare her life should end because of their over zealous stance on drugs.
You say there are no excuses for breaking the law in any country? What if the government of Sudan, for example, were to arrest a gay couple travelling in the region for breaking their ‘no sodomy’ law, would you support their imprisonment as ‘they should of known better when travelling in this country’?
Where do you draw the line?
Hi Natalie you are right in what you say and it is easy for someone who is not in the position of the full facts to make comments and judgments, which may or may not be relevant.
Whether I agree with the laws of another country is not relevant, for it is for that country and that country alone to make their own laws, as is the case in any Western country. We can try to influence their judgments, but can not dictate to them on how their legal systems or any of their systems for that matter are run.
How would we in the west feel if another country told us how to conduct our legal ways and we had to change them accordingly. Oh, just a minute we are already in that position by being in the EU and being subjected to the bureaucratic nonsense they infict on the UK.
But that is an other issue. Re the point in question we may not like the judgments but they do have the right to make them, for it is their country not ours.
Ms. Sandiford put her children, who are probably adults by now, in harm’s way, and now wants to use them as the excuse for her wrongdoing to get out of paying the consequences. I agree with the last comment — perhaps the death penalty is extreme, but it’s not for us to decide. When someone goes into another country and breaks the law, that’s the chance they take. Courts don’t always rule the way a person wants them to, and she went into drug trafficking with her eyes wide open.