A British grandmother has been sentenced to death for trying to smuggle almost 5kg of cocaine into Bali in her suitcase

 

 

A British grandmother has been sentenced to death for trying to smuggle almost 5kg of cocaine into Bali in her suitcase.

Lindsay Sandiford, from Gloucestershire, was arrested in May last year as she entered Indonesia on a flight from Thai capital Bangkok with £1.6million worth of the Class A drug.
State prosecutors had called for the 56-year-old housewife to be jailed for 15 years but there was a gasp in the Bali courtroom today when she was told she would be killed for her crime.
Sandiford slumped back stunned as the judges announced the shock sentence which, if carried out, will see her led into an orchard where she will be executed by firing squad.
Mrs Sandiford was heard to cry softly, 'No, no, no,' from under her beige-coloured sarong, marked with a traditional Balinese pattern.
She also wept and declined to speak to reporters on her way back to prison.
Mrs Sandiford had hoped she would be spared execution because of her age and for her co-operation with authorities on the holiday isle.
She had also claimed she was coerced into the crime because her children were threatened.

 

But in its verdict, a judge panel headed by Amser Simanjuntak concluded that Sandiford has damaged the image of Bali as a tourism destination and weakened the government's fight against drugs.
'We found no reason to lighten her sentence,' he said.
She will appeal and her hopes of escaping the firing squad now depend on a series of legal challenges and, finally, with a plea for mercy to the president if all her legal channels become exhausted.