British woman, 56, gets death for smuggling cocaine into Bali

I think I read her neighbours all hated her, as she partied alot n shit, I dunno if I believe the part about making her smuggle shit or killing her son, I mean why not just goto the cops if you're being pressured like that? She may have been right into the coke...

Fucked situation whatever the case tho. I'll never understand why people smuggle shit thru Asian countries, I'd rather starve and be threatened etc than risk 1) death penalty, and 2) along time in a shitty Asian prison.
 
Watch enough 'Locked Up Abroad' and read enough in the media about outcomes of smugglers and it should really be enough of a warning for anyone. I guess there will always be people who wont to risk it for the bucks tho sadly (and I guess some are set up too, like they dont even know they are smuggling stuff, as it has been planted or whatever)
 
British diplomats appeal over death sentence handed to Lindsay Sandiford in Bali

BRITISH diplomats have today literally pleaded for the life of a drug smuggling grandmother sentenced to death in Bali.

Lindsay Sandiford, 56, had expected her penalty to be harsh after smuggling 4.8kg of cocaine worth $2.5 million in the lining of her suitcase. She was arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport last May; four other Britons were also arrested in a sting operation she helped set up as part of a plea deal.

But a request for a 15-year sentence for the Briton was overruled by a judge who instead sentenced Sandiford to death by firing squad. Her lawyers were today preparing her appeal.

Sandiford spent most of the day in her cell in the notorious Kerobokan prison crying and depressed and had not wanted to see anyone.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague yesterday spoke to his Indonesian counterpart but it was the diplomats and those from his department who were today beginning the lobbying campaign to spare the woman execution.

Britain’s objection to death penalties is being formally made in writing.

"We will leave no doubt that we are not happy," a spokesman said.

"We will make sure this stays on the radar."

Sandiford’s local MP Martin Horwood also called for the decision to be immediately rescinded.

"The days of the death penalty ought to be past, this is not the way that a country that now values democracy and human rights should really be behaving."

Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire told the House of Commons consular assistance was being provided and the department was doing all it could to spare her life.

"We strongly object to the death penalty and continue to provide consular assistance to Lindsay and her family during this difficult time."

The drug haul was destined for sale at the hard-partying set on the Bali island notorious for its drugs.

In Britain, the Sandilands story was surprisingly not front page news, making only page 15 in both red top tabloids The Sun and The Mirror and page 15 in The Daily Mail next to a story about a chewable Ipad for babies.

The reaction may in part be in response to reports the grandmother was allegedly a well known face in drugs circles. Australian author Kathryn Bonella was widely quoted claiming the woman often brought hashish in from India and recently upgraded to cocaine. Sandiford has admitted the haul but said she was forced to do it after drug dealers threatened her sons in the UK.

Using western mules was now common according to Indonesian police.

"Using Europeans is a new trend in 2012," Bali narcotics chief Mulyadi said.

"A year earlier most of the couriers hailed from the Middle East and African countries."

There are currently 35 foreigners including two Australians and 56 Indonesians on death row.

625174-indonesia-britain-crime-drugs-trial-verdict.jpg


http://www.news.com.au/world/britis...andiford-in-bali/story-fndir2ev-1226560568964
 
I think I read somewhere that they gathered info that proved that she had been doing this numerous times and was deep in the drug game so the whole "drug gangs were going to kill my family if I didn't do it" excuse is clearly just something she and her lawyer thought was her best chance to get out of it.
 
^^ If that is in fact the truth beyond a reasonable doubt - well... looks apparently can be deceiving. What I mean is, she doesn't look like she's the head of some major trafficking ring. She looks more so like an old lady on blood pressure meds. Again though, looks can definitely be deceiving. That being said, I still don't agree her being sent to the gallows.
 
I guess the best she can hope for is a reduction in sentence, which would probably mean most her life in an Indo jail (Kerobokan) (Kerobokan Prison is a prison located in Kerobokan, Badung Regency, on the Indonesian island of Bali. The prison opened in 1979 and contains about 1000 male and female prisoners of various nationalities.)

Drug syndicates adopt new tactics, use westerners as mules in Bali

DENPASAR (Bali) Drug syndicates are using westerners to smuggle drugs into Bali in new tactics, Indonesian authorities said on Wednesday as a British grandmother became the latest to face the firing squad for trafficking.

Lindsay Sandiford, 56, was sentenced to death on Tuesday after being caught with 4.79kg of cocaine worth $2.4 million in her suitcase as she arrived on a flight from Bangkok last May. The haul was destined for sale in the hard-partying resort island, which is enjoying a tourism boom and where drugs can be freely obtained despite harsh penalties and high-profile arrests.

“Drugs are absolutely easily available... from weed and ‘shrooms to crystal meth and acid,” said Australian Andrew Lee, 21, in Kuta, the island’s entertainment strip, which is lined with bars.

“Hundreds of people sell epinephrine outside the clubs,” he added.

Sandiford sobbed as the sentence was handed down in a court in Bali’s capital Denpasar, with judges rejecting arguments she was coerced into transporting the drugs by a gang that had threatened her children.

“We hope the verdict sends a message to the world that Bali is not a drugs haven and that offenders will be given the fairest possible punishment,” Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin said on Wednesday.

Sandiford joins a line-up of foreigners on death row or serving heavy sentences in Bali’s infamous Kerobokan jail, as drug syndicates turn their gaze on an island that draws nearly three million tourists each year.

According to police figures, 22 foreigners, including four Britons, three Germans and two Russians were nabbed in 2012 in drugs-related cases on the island.

Narcotics officials say drug syndicates now prefer to use western drug mules who can better blend in with the millions of arrivals at Bali’s international airport and evade police detection.

“Using European couriers is a new trend in 2012. A year earlier, most of the couriers hailed from the Middle East and African countries,” Bali narcotics police chief Mulyadi said.

National narcotics agency spokesman Sumirat Dwiyanto said that international syndicates were also wary of hiring Indonesians for fear they could “spill on them and expose their network”.

“This is a business of trust. They prefer to use their own people whom they can really trust,” he said.

A prisons official said there were currently 35 foreigners and 56 Indonesians on death row in Indonesia, including Briton Gareth Cashmore, who was sentenced after being arrested on drugs charges in the capital Jakarta last October. Among them are two members of the “Bali Nine”, a group of Australians caught at the island’s airport in 2005 with heroin strapped to their bodies. Seven others of that group are serving long jail terms.

Another high-profile inmate of Kerobokan is Australian Schapelle Corby, who was arrested with a haul of marijuana in 2004 and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in a blaze of media headlines.

http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=136386&heading=Asia
 
Drug nan on death row in Indonesia to sue British government

British human rights charity Reprieve says on Monday that a grandmother convicted of cocaine smuggling was suing the British government for allegedly failing to support an appeal against her death sentence in Indonesia.

A court last Tuesday sentenced Briton Lindsay Sandiford, 56, to death by firing squad for smuggling almost five kilograms of cocaine worth $2.3 million into the resort island of Bali last May.

Ms Sandiford said overnight that she will appeal against the sentence, but Reprieve said on its website that she had exhausted her family's finances to pay for a trial lawyer and had no money to fund an appeal.

Reprieve said the Foreign Office, in failing to provide a lawyer, was "in breach of its obligations as a matter of EU law" to ensure Ms Sandiford did not face the death penalty and had received a fair trial.

"Legal action charity Reprieve, along with solicitors Leigh Day & Co, has filed (for) a judicial review on Ms Sandiford's behalf against the Foreign and Commonwealth Office," said a statement on the charity's website.

"Everyone knows that capital punishment means that those without the capital get the punishment. Lindsay's poverty means that she has ended up sentenced to death after a manifestly unfair trial," Reprieve's investigator Harriet McCulloch was quoted as saying.

A judge must now decide whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has breached its obligations and must provide Sandiford with adequate legal representation, the statement added.

Overnight Ms Sandiford submitted a statement to the Indonesian authorities saying she would file an appeal, but had not appointed a lawyer, the island's Denpasar district court registrar Gede Ketut Rantam told AFP.

Esra Karokaro, her defence lawyer during the trial, said he had neither met Ms Sandiford nor had she contacted him over the appeal since the sentencing.

Authorities had claimed Ms Sandiford was at the centre of a drugs ring, which had been described as "a huge international syndicate".

She was found guilty of carrying the cocaine into the country in a suitcase, on a flight from Bangkok, but argued that she was coerced and that her children had been threatened.

After Ms Sandiford's arrest three other Britons were detained in connection with the same drugs ring, but two of them were cleared of trafficking charges and received light sentences.

The third, Julian Ponder, will be sentenced today. He was also cleared of smuggling charges and now faces a lesser charge of drug possession, which is punishable by life imprisonment instead of death. Prosecutors recommended a seven-year sentence.

Indonesia enforces stiff penalties for drug trafficking, but death penalty sentences are commonly commuted to long jail sentences. The last execution was in June 2008, when two Nigerian drug traffickers were shot.

Two Australians are on death row after being arrested in 2005 for smuggling heroin.

http://www.news.com.au/world/britis...a-death-sentence/story-fndir2ev-1226563818288
 
poledriver said:
Two Australians are on death row after being arrested in 2005 for smuggling heroin.
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God... Almost 8 years in a third world can, waiting to be to executed. I don't even want to try to imagine, the constant burden they carry with them each day in there; rotting away. Waiting to die. Terrible way to go.
 
^ Yeah those 2 also have been model prisoners afaik (infact all the Bali 9 have been I believe), I think I read they both became muslims in there, and they help teach others through certain courses and what not. I'm pretty sure one got married as well, to an Indo woman, even though he'll never be allowed out, or may be executed. It's a real shame they made the decision to be involved with transporting heroin thru Indo. If they had of been caught with it in Aus they probably would have got 8 yr or less jail (at a guess)
 
Briton jailed in Indonesia for drug possession

A British man accused of involvement in a drug trafficking ring on the Indonesian resort island of Bali has been sentenced to six years in jail for possession of cocaine.

Julian Ponder, 43, is linked with Lindsay Sandiford, a British grandmother who was condemned to death last week for her part in what authorities described as a "huge international syndicate".

Presiding judge Gunawan Tri Budiono told Bali's Denpasar court on Tuesday that Ponder was guilty of possessing 23.04 grams of cocaine worth $6,000.

"The defendant has been proven legally and convincingly guilty of committing a crime of drug possession," he said.

"[Judges] sentence him to six years in jail and a fine of one billion rupiah ($99,000)."

The sentence was lighter than the seven years' jail recommended by prosecutors.

Ponder was dressed casually in a blue T-shirt and checked shorts but later changed to a long-sleeved white shirt and black jeans during the hearing.

He appeared tense as the verdict was read out.

His defence lawyer, Arie Budiman Soenardi, told reporters after the trial that he would advise Ponder not to appeal against the sentence.

"[The sentence] is quite light, not far from what the prosecutors had asked, so we will soon advise our client to accept it," he said.

Last week Sandiford was sentenced to death by firing squad after being detained in Bali last May with 4.79 kilograms of cocaine in the lining of her suitcase.

She has appealed against her sentence and says she was coerced into the smuggling after traffickers threatened to kill her children.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-29/british-man-jailed-in-indonesia-for-drug-possession/4489994
 
poledriver said:
"The defendant has been proven legally and convincingly guilty of committing a crime of drug possession," he said.
Click to expand...

Oh I'm sure your team of third world pigs and quacks beat the tar out of him- err I mean found evidence to which he finally fessed up.

poledriver said:
His defence lawyer, Arie Budiman Soenardi, told reporters after the trial that he would advise Ponder not to appeal against the sentence.
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Oh yeah totally - be content that you'll be spending several years in a third world can. Alrighty then.

poledriver said:
"[The sentence] is quite light, not far from what the prosecutors had asked, so we will soon advise our client to accept it," he said.
Click to expand...

Seven years because you happen to have some blow on you without intent to traffic is way too excessive, regardless of the fact that the amount in question equals a little over 3/4 of an ounce. Ugh.
 
Lindsay Sandiford’s Sister Fears She May Not Be Saved From Execution In Bali

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The sister of Lindsay Sandiford, the British grandmother sentenced to death by firing squad in Bali last week, fears that she cannot be saved from execution because of her inability to fund a lawyer.

Hilary Parsons has spent the last pennies of her savings to try and find Sandiford a lawyer to challenge her death sentence for drug smuggling, but cannot afford even the expenses of an Indonesian lawyer who she says has agreed to act for free.

Parsons spoke of her “terror” at the realisation that she alone must try and navigate the Indonesian appeals process, with no funds to pay legal representatives. “I can’t imagine what we will do if we miss the opportunity to save Lindsay’s life,” she said in an interview published by Reprieve, the legal rights charity supporting Sandiford.

“Because Lindsay is unrepresented it is has fallen to me to try to work out what is going on and when documents need to be filed – this is a terrifying position to be in.
“I don’t speak Indonesian and have no way to find out how the Indonesian criminal justice system works.

“When I arrived in Bali in early October I managed to find an Indonesian Lawyer, Esra Karokaro who would represent Lindsay at trial for £5000. Other lawyers we approached had asked for upwards of $30,000.

“Although Esra appeared to be an honest lawyer who would do his best for Lindsay, he did not speak much English and had never handled a case carrying the death penalty.

“Esra has done his best throughout the case but it is clear that Lindsay desperately needs the help of an experienced capital defence lawyer. A lawyer has offered to act for free but I have spent all of my savings and do not have the money to pay his costs.”

Sandiford, 56, from Teeside, was arrested on £1.7m drugs charges in Bali.Prosecution lawyers asked for her to serve a 15-year sentence, but a panel of judges, headed by Amser Simanjuntak, concluded that Sandiford had damaged the image of Bali as a tourism destination and weakened the government’s programme of drug annihilation.

Reprieve recently announced that it had filed an application for a judicial review through solicitors Leigh Day & Co, charging the UK Foreign Office overs its alleged failure to support Sandiford’s appeal.
Sandiford has just two weeks to file the appeal. She has already filed an intention to appeal with the district court.

Parsons said: “A lawyer has offered to represent Lindsay pro bono if the British Government are able to cover his costs. He is our only choice.

“If we were properly funded we could hire the very best lawyer. I know nothing about this lawyer and can only hope and pray that he is the right person for the very difficult job.

“I am so scared that we will lose the chance to appeal. A lawyer should have started work on the case a week ago and every day that goes by is a day that Lindsay loses for preparing her appeal.

“We have nowhere else to turn. We desperately need the help of the British Foreign Office to ensure that Lindsay has a lawyer. “

Separately, the Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s largest English-language newspaper, has published an editorial in the wake of the Sandiford case, calling for the abolition of the death penalty in Indonesia.

It said: “This new death sentence should serve as the impetus for the complete abolition of the death penalty in Indonesia.

“More than two-thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty. The year 2013 should be the time for Indonesia to follow suit.

One of the reasons given by the paper for abolition is the fact that the US still retains capital punishment. “We should also abolish the death penalty so that we are no longer compared to other death penalty retainers, like the US, whose criminal justice systems are notoriously problematic and rife with errors,” the paper said.

http://usecmagazine.usecnetwork.com/uk/?p=56117
 
I've always wanted to go to Indonesia but I'd be paranoid of getting framed. I don't think this woman was though... that's a lot of coke to be carrying and claim you didn't know.

Meth addiction is so high in south-east Asia... I wonder when the governments are going to clue in that the death penalty is no deterrent. You can kill people all you want but the drug trade is expanding yearly.
 
poledriver said:
One of the reasons given by the paper for abolition is the fact that the US still retains capital punishment. “We should also abolish the death penalty so that we are no longer compared to other death penalty retainers, like the US, whose criminal justice systems are notoriously problematic and rife with errors,” the paper said.
Click to expand...

Well, at least a small country on the other side of the globe realizes that the US DOJ is treated like an industry - to be invested in, to capitalize on keeping others hold up in a cage.

Case in point - The CEO of a Fortune 500 company is charged with first degree murder of an average middle-class American. What are the chances that man/woman is gonna walk free when compared to - say - a single mom or dad from the ghetto? Money is gonna buy the CEO freedom; and the lack of it will bury the financially struggling sole parent in a 6x8 cell for life.

Foreigner said:
I've always wanted to go to Indonesia but I'd be paranoid of getting framed. I don't think this woman was though... that's a lot of coke to be carrying and claim you didn't know.
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I still think she was a decoy, and someone else got through with a lot more.

A kilo of blow, bought and smuggled from Colombian cartels will go for around $3,500. By the time it's cut up and distributed to low level dealers, that price balloons to about $80,000.

So once Lindsay Sandiford was caught with the ~4.8kg of blow, someone lost approximately $16,800 worth of product.

Now, let's say someone else got through that same day with 10 keys of white. $35,000 cost to the traffickers. That value goes up to $800,000 once it hits the streets (or in this case, beaches). Subtract the cost of the decoy's lost product, as well as "shipping and handling" and they still make a profit of almost 3/4 of a million. There may be some more fees incurred (e.g. paying off customs, hotel accommodations/plane tickets for the decoy and The Real McCoy), but it don't matter - still a big ass profit at the end of the day. Rinse and repeat. Fuck the decoy - the life of another human being is of no value, no moral concern to them. Only $$$.
 
Drug-smuggling grandmother appeals against death sentence

A British grandmother sentenced to death by firing squad for smuggling drugs into Indonesia has lodged an appeal in the country's High Court.

Lindsay Sandiford was found with 4.79 kilograms of cocaine in the lining of her suitcase during a routine customs check at Bali's airport last May.

An Indonesian court sentenced her to death by firing squad last month despite prosecutors' requests for a 15-year jail term.

Sandiford's lawyer has lodged an appeal with Indonesia's High Court, saying the sentence is unfair given his client's cooperation with police.

Sandiford claims she was forced into smuggling the drugs after threats were made against her children.

If her High Court bid fails she can appeal to the Supreme Court and then for a presidential pardon.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-...mother-appeals-against-death-sentence/4513724
 
btw there seems to be 3 threads going for this when I searched. And a 4th that i started which also relates about the other guy caught, Paul Beales.
 
Britain intervenes in grandmother death row case in Bali

BRITAIN has raised claims that Indonesian authorities mistreated a British grandmother on death row for drug trafficking, in a statement supporting her appeal.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office submitted a document in Indonesian to the Denpasar District Court citing allegations that officials had "violated Lindsay Sandiford's fundamental rights under international laws and the Indonesian constitution".

They said Sandiford, 56, was allegedly threatened with a gun and deprived of sleep.

"The British government wants to attract the court's attention to serious allegations of mistreatment by related officers and officials at the time Lindsay Sandiford was first detained," said the document obtained by AFP from the court.

The document reminded the Indonesian government it had ratified the UN Convention Against Torture which outlaws forced sleep deprivation.

It also said Sandiford's crime was "not exceptional enough" to warrant capital punishment and mitigating factors, such as her cooperation with police, should be taken into account in her appeal.

The unusual intervention comes after the High Court in London dismissed Sandiford's request for financial help in appointing a lawyer, estimated by the NGO Reprieve to cost 2500 pounds ($3800).

Sandiford was sentenced to death on January 22 for smuggling nearly five kilos of cocaine worth $US2.4 million ($2.3 million) into Bali in May, even though prosecutors recommended a 15-year jail term.

She lodged an appeal against her death sentence on Monday, when the British government statement was submitted as an "amicus curiae" (friend of the court), - a party that offers unsolicited information in a case.

During her trial Sandiford argued she was forced into transporting the drugs to protect her children, whose safety was at stake. The court rejected her claims, saying she had damaged the island's reputation as a tourism destination.

http://www.news.com.au/world/britai...row-case-in-bali/story-fndir2ev-1226577487160
 
MittZombie said:
they simply can't have a bunch of hard drugs casting a dark shadow over their thriving sex tourism industry. Seriously, who's going to want to get with an 11 year old ladyboy who's high on dope?
Click to expand...

Just wanted to point out that Bali doesn't have a "thriving sex tourism industry". Not that sex tourism doesn't exist there at all... but I think you are getting confused with another popular Asian resort destination.
 
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