British Grandmother On Death Row In Indonesia To Face Firing Squad (Photo)
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| Death Row: Lindsay Sandiford |
A British grandmother on death row after smuggling £1.6million of
cocaine says she will face the firing squad with no blind fold and
singing light-hearted song Magic Moments.
Lindsay Sandiford, 58, is writing letters to family and loved ones as a
final goodbye because she fears "I might die any time now", after eight
other drug traffickers were executed there on Wednesday.
Sandiford is facing the gruesome death on the
Indonesian "execution island" Nusa Kambangan after running out of time
to appeal the tough sentence.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, she told of wanting to meet her
granddaughter, who was born after she was put on death row in January
2013, but added: "At the same time I feel it would be better if she
doesn't know me".
The article comes after the execution of the eight convicted drug
smugglers, including two Australians she befriending in prison. She
wrote;
"The executions have forced me to think about how I am going to handle
the situation when my own time comes. I won't wear a blindfold. It's not
because I'm brave but because I don't want to hide - I want them to
look at me when they shoot me.
"I'll sing too, but not Amazing Grace. I'll sing Magic Moments by Perry
Como. I had a boyfriend who used to change the lyrics of songs and play
them on his Hammond organ to make me laugh. That was one of the songs he
sang and it reminds me of those long-ago days."
Sandiford, from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, said she was now the only
death row prisoner left in Kerobokan prison and the Indonesian
authorities want all executions for drug offences done by the end of the
year.
Originally from Redcar, Teesside, she was found with the haul of drugs
as she arrived on the island of Bali on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand,
in May 2012.
She admitted the offenses, but claimed she had been coerced by threats
to her son's life, and has since appealed against her sentence without
success.
Last week she said she had been "deeply saddened" by the "senseless,
brutal deaths" of Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, who were
among the eight convicted drug smugglers executed on Wednesday.
She said the pair "touched the lives of a great many people" after helping to rehabilitate fellow prisoners.
Amnesty International has condemned the executions and called for an end to the death penalty.
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| Grim:
This patchy stretch of grass with a makeshift purple tarpaulined
structure is where Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed on
Wednesday |
