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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Holly Bancroft

Lindsay Sandiford timeline: How British grandmother ended up on death row in Bali

A British grandmother is waiting to be executed in a Bali jail after she was convicted of smuggling cocaine to the island.

Lindsay Sandiford is currently being held in Kerobokan prison, which holds around 1,000 inmates.

Here is a timeline of how she got there:

Early 2012 Lindsay Sandiford set up home in India, having moved from Gloucestershire, England.

17 May 2012 Sandiford allegedly met two members of a drug syndicate in Bangkok, Thailand and collected a suitcase packed with cocaine.

Lindsay Sandiford has been sentenced to death for drug smuggling (EPA)

19 May 2012 Sandiford was arrested after cocaine was found in her luggage as she arrived into Bali from Bangkok. Police accuse her of being at the centre of a drugs rings involving three other Britons.

20 May 2012 Sandiford starts co-operating with police and gives them information about the drug syndicate. She insisted that she had been coerced into bringing cocaine to Bali.

22 January 2013 Sandiford is sentenced to death for smuggling 10.6lb of cocaine from Thailand. The prosecution had recommended 15 years imprisonment but a panel of judges sentenced her to death by firing squad.

Lindsay Sandiford (L) speaks with her sister Hillary Parsons (R) at holding cell after her trial at a court in Denpasar on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on January 22, 2013. (AFP via Getty Images)

29 January 2013 Julian Ponder is cleared of smuggling but convicted of possessing 23g of cocaine. He was one of the three Britons detained after Sandiford was arrested for smuggling cocaine.

31 January 2013 Sandiford loses her bid to get the UK government to fund a lawyer for her appeal against the death penalty.

15 February 2013 The British consulate in Bali submitted a statement to Sandiford’s appeal. A spokesperson for the FCDO said: “It continues to be the longstanding policy of the United Kingdom to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances and we will do all we can to assist British nationals facing the death penalty.”

Lindsay Sandiford (C) arrives for her trial at Denpasar district court in Bali, Indonesia, 07 January 2013 (EPA)

8 April 2013 Sandiford lost her first appeal against her death sentence. The appeal judges ruled that the original decision was “accurate and correct”.

30 August 2013 Sandiford loses her second appeal in Indonesia’s highest court. “The decision is unanimous”, said chief judge Artidjo Alkostar.

22 February 2019 Sandiford gave an interview to MailOnline from prison and said that “in spite of everything, I feel blessed.”

“I have been blessed to live long enough to see my two sons grow up into fine young men and blessed to have been able to meet my two grandchildren. A lot of people don’t get that in their lifetime,” she said.

Lindsay Sandiford sits next to her evidence at custom office in Denpasar, Bali, (EPA)

18 May 2019 Sandiford’s fellow inmate, Heather Mack, tells The Mirror that Lindsay “spends all day pretty much alone in her cell and doesn’t mix so much with the other prisoners.”

“She snaps at me for no reason but I still make an effort with her. She has said she wants to die,” Mack added.

Heather Mack was jailed in 2015 for helping her boyfriend murder her mother. The pair wrapped her mother’s body in tape, stuffed it in a suitcase and tried to flee.

Lindsay Sandiford knitting in Kerobokan prison (Shutterstock)
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