A British gran has been on death row in Indonesia for over a decade after she was caught smuggling cocaine into the country – and this is what the prison she waits is like.
Lindsay Sandiford, from Yorkshire, is awaiting her sentence in Kerobokan prison, where she has missed out on seeing her sons growing up to have families of their own.
Sandiford, 67, has revealed that her final wish is ‘to die’ after spending over a decade behind bars since first being arrested in 2012, when she was caught flying into Bali from Bangkok with 10.16 lb of cocaine smuggled in her suitcase.
Kerobokan, where Sandiford has been since 2013, is one of Indonesia’s most notorious prisons.
It was built to hold 357 inmates in 1979, but today holds 1,000 more within its walls.
Like Sandiford, more than 80 percent of the inhabitants are there on drug charges, according to a 2017 ABC News report.
At the time of her arrest in 2012, there were 90 prisoners in Kerobokan awaiting execution.
Within Indonesia, half of the country’s prisoners are in jail for drug offences, and traffickers are dealt with especially harshly.
In 2015, the Indonesian government attracted international attention after two Australians who were part of a heroin smuggling squad were killed by firing squad. They were two of twelve foreigners killed in 2015, all of whom were executed for drug charges.
Sandiford is yet to face the firing squad.
The 67-year-old insisted that she was manipulated into smuggling cocaine into the country.
The Mirror reports that the Cheltenham-based mum knitted various items in her cell, which she would sell to raise funds for her legal bills.
Sandiford is still waiting to hear when her execution date will be, and until then she is left in limbo.
She previously separated from her husband and made the decision to move to India in 2012, only to then get caught up in the drugs bust.
After she was caught, Sandiford claimed she was pressured into carrying the drugs by a gang who had made threats against her children, and her lawyers also argued she was suffering from mental health problems.
Speaking to the court during her trial, she expressed regret over her involvement, stating: “I would like to begin by apologising 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.”
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