Latest Teesside headlines straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The frontman of grindcore band Napalm Death has urged the Indonesian President to save the life of a Redcar gran.

Lindsay Sandiford has gained an unlikely supporter in the form of heavy metal singer Barney Greenway who has written to Pesident Joko Widodo calling for him to show “mercy and restrain”.

Sandiford, 57, who is originally from Redcar later moved to Cheltenham, is facing death for drug smuggling in Bali.

She was arrested with £1.6m of cocaine when she arrived in Bali from Thailand in May 2012.

She claims she was forced to transport the drugs to protect her son, whose safety was at stake.

In an open letter to the president, who is a fan of the British band which performs death metal and hardcore punk music, Greenway said “humane perspective” should be considered in Sandiford’s case.

In the letter, published by the Independent newspaper, he wrote: “It would appear that she was under duress to transport drugs, with her family under threat if she did not comply.”

The musician urged the president to urgently “give his attention to Lindsay Sandiford’s plight”.

He added “Currently, Lindsay Sandiford has not seemingly been afforded the legal resources to present her case, so to deal with her case in the cruellest way would be to do so on a partial hearing of the facts at hand and not upon any form of justice as I understand the concept.”

Last week, the British musician appealed to the politician for the humane treatment of two Australian metal devotees, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, facing execution for their part in heroin trafficking in Indonesia.

Sandiford could face a firing squad in weeks and has written to Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond ahead of his trip to Indonesia this month.

She has no money for lawyers and claims to have had little Foreign Office help.

But a spokesman said the Foreign Office stood “ready to provide support”.

The spokesman said it had consistently provided and offered consular support to Sandiford, which she currently declined to accept.