Fears For Bali Death Row Grandmother Lindsay Sandiford As New President Vows Faster Executions

Fears For Death Row Grandmother As New President Vows Faster Executions
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British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford may have lost one of her last chances to avoid the firing squad, as the new President of Indonesia is said to have vowed not to grant clemency to any drug traffickers.

The 57-year-old from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was sentenced to death in January 2013, caught trafficking £1.6m worth of cocaine into Bali.

She has exhausted several appeals and only has one more chance to avoid execution, a direct appeal for clemency to the Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

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Lindsay Sandiford of Britain fans herself as she arrives at the courthouse for a hearing in Denpasar

The recently elected President Joko has this week made it clear he is in favour of the death penalty, and will show no mercy to Indonesia's drug dealers.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Department told the Jakarta Globe: "The President says he will be firm. We want to send a warning to international drug syndicates that Indonesia doesn't want to be a stopping place, market place or even a place for producers of narcotics."

The Attorney General's office announced this week that five inmates currently on death row will be shot within the next month, all of them having failed in all of their appeals and having been denied a pardon from the president..

Sandiford has lodged her plea for a pardon with the President's office, though the paperwork was given to his predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Indonesia resumed executing death row prisoners in 2013, after a four-year moratorium, and the death penalty is used for drug trafficking, murder and terrorism.

Sandiford has previously described the refusal to fund her appeal as "tantamount to condoning the death penalty".

Speaking to Victoria Derbyshire on BBC 5 Live, Sandiford said via email: "The Government has done very little to support me. The FCO has done even less.

"However, I have been able to talk about my situation and will continue to do so because there are others in a similar desperate plight that are not seen.

"There are, and will continue to be, British nationals facing execution without lawyers and because they can not raise their voices the Government is standing by refusing to assist with funding of lawyers for them.

"This action is tantamount to condoning the death penalty. Just giving and the public have done what the British Government fight not to do at great public expense."

But she did express her gratitude to those people that have helped her. "I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the people who made donations together with the uplifting messages of support," she said. "In my darkest hour, this was like a ray of sunshine. I was beginning to feel that my situation was unbearable. I felt totally stranded and alone.

"The public's caring has shown just how wrong you can be. I am blessed to know my family loved me whatever. Just giving has shown me that you're never alone. People really do care when they know."