Monday, 4 May 2015

British Grandmother On Death Row In Indonesia To Face Firing Squad (Photo)


British Grandmother On Death Row In Indonesia To Face Firing Squad (Photo)

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.


Grim: This patchy stretch of grass with a makeshift purple tarpaulined structure is where Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed on Wednesday

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