THE British death row gran facing a firing squad in Bali for drug smuggling has said that she “just wants to die”. Lindsay Sandiford, 62, was sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle 4.7kg of cocaine into the country in 2012. The 62-year-old is said to have become increasingly withdrawn and has told her inmate […]
THE British death row gran facing a firing squad in Bali for drug smuggling has said that she “just wants to die”.
Lindsay Sandiford, 62, was sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle 4.7kg of cocaine into the country in 2012.
The 62-year-old is said to have become increasingly withdrawn and has told her inmate friends that she is fed up.
Heather Mack, 23, a fellow prisoner said that she got close to Sandiford inside Bali’s Kerobokan Prison, but the grandmother has become more reclusive and difficult to speak to.
She told the Sunday Mirror: “She snaps at me for no reason but I still make an effort with her. She has said that she wants to die.”
Mack said that Sandiford was upset after watching two other prisoners who had been convicted of drug offences were taken away and executed.
“They had turned their lives around and were different people to when they were convicted, so everyone thought they would be OK.
“When Lindsay saw that even they could be taken away and killed, she knew it would be happening to her. That’s when it really, really hit home for her.”
She snaps at me for no reason but I still make an effort with her. She has said that she wants to die.
She initially fought against her sentence but has now spoken out to reveal she has come to terms with her fate, insisting the firing squad: “won’t be a hard thing for me to face anymore.”
“Dying doesn’t bother me”
In a frank interview with British journalists, the grandmother revealed she has accepted her impending execution after abandoning her legal battle to be freed.
Asked if she feared the firing squad, 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.
“Dying doesn’t bother me. I never thought I’d last this long to be honest.”
She said that she feels “blessed” because she has seen her two sons grow up and met her grandchildren.
Drug mule Sandiford was caught at Denpasar Airport in May 2012 when officials discovered a massive haul of cocaine hidden in the lining of her suitcase.
The formal legal secretary, from Redcar, Teesside, was convicted later the same year and has spent six years on death row.
Speaking from inside the grim Kerobokan prison in Bali, she insisted she was unfazed by the prospect of her death.
She told the MailOnline: “What I am uncomfortable about is the public humiliation. You’re dragged half way around the country and paraded in front of the press before being executed and that will be the worst thing for me.
“My attitude is ‘If you want to shoot me, shoot me. Get on with it.’
Dying doesn’t bother me. I never thought I’d last this long to be honest.
Death row gran Lindsay Saniford, 62
“I’ve done a terrible thing, I know, but the worst thing is the ritual public humiliation they seem to enjoy.”
Sandiford has no previous convictions but was handed a death sentence after claiming a UK-based drug syndicate forced her to smuggle cocaine from Thailand to Bali.
She told a Bali court the crime gang threatened to kill one of her two sons in Britain if she refused to cooperate.
However, she has since accepted she will die in prison but has banned her sons from being present during her execution after seeing the devastation caused to the family of Andrew Chan, the ‘Bali Nine’ ringleader who was killed by firing squad in 2015.
She continued: “I’ve told my family I don’t want any of them to come when it happens. I don’t want to put them through what Andrew’s family went through and the families of the other prisoners who were shot.
“I’ve said to my sons if you come I will refuse to see you so don’t bother coming.
“I’ve told them when I’m dead there will be no ceremonies, no nothing, If there’s any money left spend it all in one day and have a party and enjoy yourselves.
“I’ve told them ‘If there’s any weeping or ritual trees or flowers, I will come back and haunt you’.
“They know it would be the last thing I wanted. They know that. I’m their mum and they love me and for me that’s enough. And they know I love them and hopefully that will be enough for them.”
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