British grandma who’s been on death row for over a decade revealed sad final wish
Niamh Spence
Featured Image Credit: SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP via Getty Images
A British grandma who has been serving a sentence on death row in a prison in Bali since 2013 has revealed her sad final wish.
Lindsay Sandiford is currently on death row for drug smuggling after she was caught attempting to smuggle £1.6 million of cocaine into Indonesia from Bangkok.
Sandiford, from Cheltenham, claimed she was pressured into carrying the drugs by a gang who had made threats against her children.
While in court, her lawyers also argued she was suffering from mental health problems when she undertook the drug smuggling.
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Speaking to the court during her trial, Sandiford apologised profusely as she said: "I would like to begin by apologising to the Republic of Indonesia and the Indonesian people for my involvement.
"I would never have become involved in something like this but the lives of my children were in danger and I felt I had to protect them."
During her time inside, Sandiford is said to have kept her head down and hidden herself away for the most part but did become friendly with Heather Mack, who was serving a 10 year sentence for killing her mother.
Mack claimed that Sandiford struggled while locked up and became increasingly withdrawn: "She spends all day pretty much alone in her cell and doesn’t mix so much with the other prisoners."
The American killer, who ultimately served seven years in Indonesia before being sentenced to another 26 years behind bars in the US, revealed what Sandiford's final wish was: "She has said she wants to die."
Sandiford said: "It won't be a hard thing for me to face anymore.
"It's not particularly a death I would choose but then again I wouldn't choose dying in agony from cancer either."
At present Sandiford still hasn't been given a date for her execution, and has been left in limbo.
She is currently being held in Kerobokan prison, which is supposed to hold 320 prisoners but has been overcrowded and in 2017 numbers were at almost 1,300.
In March this year, an update on Sandiford was given after it was revealed she was visited by human rights barrister Felicity Gerry KC who has called 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."