A grandmother who is awaiting her execution by firing squad in Bali on drug crimes has one final wish and it’s pretty chilling.
Lindsay Sandiford, a 67-year-old grandmother from the UK, has spent a decade on death row in a Bali prison for her involvement in drug smuggling.
The shocking story of her fate began when she was apprehended trying to smuggle a staggering £1.6 million ($2 million) worth of cocaine into Indonesia from Bangkok.
Sandiford was convicted of this grave crime in December 2012 and subsequently sentenced to death by firing squad a month later.
However, the legal system in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian country, doesn’t execute prisoners regularly, leaving this former legal secretary in a state of agonizing limbo for over ten years, as reported by the Mirror.
The toll of this protracted ordeal has been felt not only by Sandiford herself but also by her family, especially her two sons who have started families of their own while their mother has remained incarcerated.
During her time in confinement, Sandiford developed an unexpected bond with Heather Mack, an American prisoner serving a ten-year sentence for killing her own mother.
The grandmother is in Kerobokan prison. Credit: Agung Parameswara/Getty
Mack, who ultimately served seven years, disclosed that Sandiford had been struggling and becoming increasingly withdrawn. “She spends all day pretty much alone in her cell and doesn’t mix so much with the other prisoners,” Mack revealed.
She also shared Sandiford’s final wish, saying: “She has said she wants to die.”
Mack went on: “I am friends with Lindsay but she has been difficult to speak to recently. She 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.”
Sandiford herself expressed: “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.”
Currently, this British grandmother remains incarcerated in Kerobokan prison, which was constructed in 1979 with a capacity to house 320 inmates.
However, as of 2017, nearly 1,300 prisoners were cramped into this facility, and the problem of overcrowding persists even after the opening of a new facility in 2018.
She has been on death row for a decade. Credit: Agung Parameswara/Getty Images
Sandiford had previously separated from her husband and made the fateful decision to move to India in 2012, only to find herself ensnared in a nightmarish drug bust.
After her apprehension, Sandiford claimed she was coerced into carrying the drugs by a criminal gang that had threatened her children. Her legal defense team also argued that she was grappling with severe mental health issues.
Addressing the court during her trial, she expressed remorse over her involvement, saying: “I would like to begin by apologizing to the Republic of Indonesia and the Indonesian people for my involvement. I would never have become involved in something like this, but the lives of my children were in danger, and I felt I had to protect them.”