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A British grandmother on death row in Indonesia is writing goodbye letters to her family and believes she could be executed at any time.
Lindsay Sandiford, 58, wrote in a newspaper article on Sunday that she was expecting to die shortly, after seven foreign drug convicts were executed last week, causing a storm of international protest.
“My execution is imminent and I know I might die at any time now. I could be taken tomorrow from my cell,” Sandiford wrote in British newspaper the Mail on Sunday.
“I have started to write goodbye letters to members of my family.”
Sandiford, originally from Redcar in northeast England, wrote that she planned to sing the cheery popular song Magic Moments when facing the firing squad.
“I won’t wear a blindfold. It’s not because I’m brave but because I don’t want to hide - I want them to look at me when they shoot me.”
She said her greatest sadness is that she may never meet her two-year-old granddaughter, who was born after her arrest.
Sandiford was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs.
Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.4 million (HK$18.6 million) hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when she arrived in Bali on a flight from Thailand in 2012.
Sandiford admitted the offences, but says that she agreed to carry the drugs after a drug syndicate threatened to kill her son.
She described Andrew Chan, 31, one of two Australians killed by firing squad on Wednesday for his role in a plan to smuggle heroin, as “one of the heroes of my life”.
The two had become close friends in prison, where Chan had spent a decade after being arrested as one of the so-called “Bali Nine” group of smugglers.
The execution of Chan, who became a Christian pastor in prison, and another Australian Myuran Sukumaran, 34, cast a pall over relations between Australia and Indonesia.
A mentally ill Brazilian man and four African men were also executed. A Filipina single mother, Mary Jane Veloso, was granted a last-minute reprieve.
Sandiford’s family have recently launched a fundraising drive to raise money to lodge an appeal at the Indonesian Supreme Court, after the British government refused to fund the legal fight.
If the challenge fails, Sandiford still has the option to appeal for clemency from Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Mercy pleas of the convicts executed on Wednesday had been rejected.
 


‘Execution is imminent’: Drug-running UK grandmother in Bali fears death is near

Lindsay Sandiford in a holding cell in Bali in 2012. She says she was forced to smuggle drugs by criminals who threatened her son. Photo: AFP

Indonesia defends executions of eight drug traffickers ‘who went singing to their deaths’

An Indonesian worker puts letters on a memorial sign for Brazilian death row Rodrigo Gularte during his funeral at Saint Carolus funeral Home in Jakarta. Photo: EPA

An ambulance carrying bodies of death-row prisoners driving towards a funeral house in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: Xinhua

A coffin bearing the body of one of the drug convicts is carried in an ambulance as it arrives in Cilacap after the executions. Photo: AFP

Indonesian activists hold portraits of the death-row inmates in Jakarta on Tuesday. Photo: AP

Tearful protesters hold a candlelight vigil against the death penalty  outside the Nusakambangan maximum security prison. Photo: AFP

A prison van drives away from Nusakambangan maximum security prison with the body of one of the drug traffickers executed this morning, along with an unidentified woman. Photo: AFP

Workers bury Indonesian Zainal Abidin, one of the eight death-row prisoners who were executed today. Photo: EPA

Zainal Abidin, an Indonesian executed for drug crimes along with seven foreigners today, is laid to rest in Cilacap. Photo: AFP

Indonesia's Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo (right) and Police Chief General Badrodin Haidi (left) speak to the press at Nusakambangan port in Cilacap. Photo: AFP

An Islamic cleric (left) consoles a relative of Indonesian death row prisoner Zaenal Abidin during his funeral in Cilacap. Photo: Reuters

Filipino anti-riot police stand guard next to protesters during a demonstration as they wait for the imminent execution of a Filipino mother, in front of the Indonesian embassy in Makati city, south of Manila, Philippines. Photo: EPA

Activists burn an effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino to denounce his government for not taking more action in the case of Mary Jane Veloso during a protest outside the presidential palace in Manila yesterday. Photo: Reuters

‘Smiling in the face of death’: Sister recounts Filipino convict’s moments in Indonesia jail before reprieve

Marites Veloso (centre) is surrounded by media after visiting her sister Mary Jane at Wijayapura port in Cilacap, hours before the latter's execution was delayed. Photo: AP

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