Bali death row Briton's plea of 'shoot me now': Exclusive dramatic interview with condemned drug mule grandmother, 56

Grandmother says she feels like a political pawn in Indonesian courts



Reveals she doesn't want to grow old and decrepit in prison



Says she should get lighter sentence for co-operating with police

The British grandmother facing execution in Bali has given her first interview from death row – defiantly declaring she is ready to die by firing squad.

Speaking from her cell in the notorious Kerobokan prison, Lindsay Sandiford told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I would rather have the death sentence than a life sentence. I don’t want to get old and decrepit in here . . . at least a bullet is quick.’

The 56-year-old’s extraordinary plea came after her appeal against her sentence was rejected on Monday, a decision which has been roundly condemned as ‘bizarre and unjust’.

Drugs mule Sandiford was arrested last May after flying to Bali from Bangkok carrying 10.6lb of cocaine, worth £1.6 million.

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While Sandiford was sentenced to death in January, three other Britons who were said to have organised the shipment, were jailed only for up to six years

In the interview – conducted through intermediaries at the prison – she said: ‘I’ve got arthritis now. What will I be like in ten years’ time when I can’t walk?

‘Sometimes I think, “Let them get on with it.” I have had a lot of fun in my life. I’ve been to a lot of places, done a lot of things and I’ve met a lot of interesting people.

‘I’ve got no regrets. I could be dying of cancer or something horrible and prolonged.’

After her arrest Sandiford co-operated with police in a sting operation that led to the capture of the conspiracy’s alleged ringleaders.

But while she was sentenced to death in January, three other Britons – Julian Ponder, 43, Paul Beale, 40, and Ponder’s partner Rachel Dougall, 38 – who were said to have organised the shipment, were jailed only for up to six years.

Trafficking charges against Ponder and Beale were dropped and they were sentenced to six and four years respectively for possession of drugs, while Dougall is due to walk free next month after a one-year term for failing to report a crime.

The High Court ruling cites as a reason for upholding the death penalty the fact that Sandiford was involved in an international drug smuggling operation with other expatriates

Sandiford’s appeal to Bali’s High Court against her sentence was rejected despite written pleas from the Foreign Office and former Director of Public Prosecutions Lord Macdonald, who described the discrepancies in sentencing as ‘unfathomable’.

In a bizarre twist, just days after the ruling, the original trial judge was found dead from a suspected heart attack. Amser Simanjuntak, 55, was said to have collapsed at his home as he prepared to go to work on Friday.

Sandiford, who is originally from Redcar, Teesside, passes her time on death row – where sweltering temperatures reach 95F – knitting jumpers for friends and family back home. And despite the crushing High Court rejection, she says she doesn’t want any sympathy.

‘What I did was wrong and I should be punished for it,’ she said. ‘But I cooperated with the police, and I should get the lowest sentence. Legally, morally – any way you look at it, it is just wrong.

‘When I cooperated with the police, they told me I was going into witness protection and that Interpol would look after my boys. They just lied to me.

‘Telling the truth doesn’t help here because you just get the death penalty. I helped the Indonesian police. The next person who gets caught isn’t going to say anything.’

Dr Fadillah Agus, Sandiford's lawyer, holds the papers showing Bali High Court's decision about the death penalty outside Kerobokan prison, Bali

Ironically, the High Court ruling cites as a reason for upholding the death penalty the fact that Sandiford was involved in an international drug smuggling operation with other expatriates – yet it makes no mention of the light sentences given to her co-conspirators.

And shockingly, Sandiford’s family in Britain learnt of the rejection of her appeal on television news in the UK before she or her lawyer knew, thanks to the decision being leaked by court officials to local journalists.

‘The whole world knew before I knew,’ she said. ‘I got a message from my son Eliot saying, “They are all b******s.” I replied, “What are you on about, son?” and he said, “Haven’t your heard mum?”

‘When I spoke to him, he was crying his heart out and my family was distraught. It was all over the morning news in the UK but no one had thought to tell me.’

Later on Monday, Sandiford was sent a brutally frank text message from the British embassy’s local representative in Bali that read: ‘I have to bring bad news. Your appeal has been refused by the Bali High Court. They confirmed it when I made a call to them this afternoon. FYI, it’s all over the news.’

The lonely scene inside the cell where Sandiford received the message was in stark contrast to the chaotic January day when the judge handed down the death sentence.

Recalling the day, she described how those around her appeared to be more upset and shocked than she was. ‘The judge read out the decision in Indonesian and my translator didn’t tell me what the sentence was. I thought I had got 15 years [the prosecution’s recommendation],’ she said.

Sandiford believes the reason her co-accused received reduced charges and light sentences was that they paid money to officials through their lawyers

‘There were newspaper reports afterwards saying that I cried and that I shouted “no, no, no” when the sentence was delivered. In fact, it was the prosecutor who was crying and it was my sister Hilary who shouted out. As I went out of the court, the prosecutor had his arm around me and he was pushing reporters away and he kept saying, “I’m so sorry.” It was a BBC reporter who told me I had the death penalty.

‘I just thought, “Oh bloody hell. Have I really got death?” It was only later on that I thought, “How did that happen?” ’

In the days that followed, Sandiford was prescribed Valium and sleeping pills by the prison doctor at Kerobokan.

‘What I couldn’t stand was the look on people’s faces,’ she said. ‘Nobody could look at me and no one knew what to say to me.

‘I wanted someone to make a joke. That’s what I really wanted. But people had no idea what to say or they say completely the wrong thing.’

Sandiford initially decided she would not appeal against her sentence, saying she could not face appearing in court again. She eventually agreed to appeal after her family pleaded with her.

‘The court is like a circus. It’s ritual humiliation. I really did not want to appeal. I explained to my son and he said, “Please Mum don’t do that.” After we talked he said, “I want you to appeal but I’ll support you whatever you think is best.” ’

Sandiford has maintained since her arrest that she agreed to carry the cocaine to Bali only after her sons' lives were threatened by the drugs gang

When the appeal court decision was announced last week, Sandiford was again offered medication by the prison doctor but refused it. ‘Even though they want to medicate me I don’t want it,’ she said. ‘I can’t sleep. I get flashbacks. I have anxiety and panic attacks and depression. I have good days and bad days.

‘But I’m trying to find a way to deal with it and a way to deal with it is if you feel the pain you know you’re still here. If you don’t feel anything, that’s the time to worry. I don’t want to go into that fog – that tablet dependency where you don’t feel anything.’

Sandiford now has until a week on Thursday to lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court in Jakarta, Indonesia’s highest court. If that fails, her only hope is to make a plea for presidential clemency.

Describing how it feels to be under sentence of death, Sandiford said: ‘It feels surreal. It feels like it isn’t me. I know what it is and I know what the consequences are. They will take me out and shoot me one day. That’s what they’re going to do.’

Sandiford believes the reason her co-accused received reduced charges and light sentences was that they paid money to officials through their lawyers – a widespread and well-documented practice in the Indonesian court system.

However, because she had no money, she says she never had the chance to pay her way out of trouble. ‘What upsets me most of all is that I feel it’s just not fair because I don’t have one million pounds,’ she said.

Sandiford's friendship with her fellow inmates and kindness of prison guards has been a source of strength, she said, as well as messages from her family and her 26-year-old Indian boyfriend

‘I know nothing in life is fair, but when you go to a court of law you do at least expect there to be some justice and there wasn’t any. There was no justice.’ Sandiford, whose first grandchild was born in December while she was in Kerobokan awaiting sentence, has maintained since her arrest that she has never smuggled drugs before and agreed to carry the cocaine to Bali only after her sons’ lives were threatened by the drugs gang.

‘Given the circumstances I was in, I would make the same decisions,’ she said. ‘My sons could be in jail or they could be in the ground. I couldn’t go to the police and say there was a drugs gang threatening to kill my sons. They wouldn’t have listened to me.

‘I’m ready to face the death sentence if that’s what’s waiting for me. My only regret is not seeing my baby granddaughter and not getting to know her.’

As her lawyer prepares her Supreme Court appeal, Sandiford passes her time in the cell she shares with 13 other women teaching her fellow inmates how to knit.

BIZARRE DECISION WILL DAMAGE JUSTICE SAYS KENNETH MACDONALD

The decision to reject the appeal of Lindsay Sandiford against her death penalty is surprising and disappointing. It is an internationally established principle that those lower down in the chain of a criminal conspiracy should get lower sentences than those higher up, and secondly that those who provide assistance to the prosecution should receive reduced sentences.

The policy reason for that is obvious – it is to encourage co-operation with the authorities so the more senior criminals can be prosecuted. Lindsay Sandiford was a mule and yet she got a higher sentence than those who arranged the importation. That is not only unjust but it is bad policy because it fails to reward someone who has co-operated.

What is particularly bizarre is that the sentences given to the others in the case are remarkably low. The sentences seem to be unfathomable: the alleged organiser (Julian Ponder) receives just six years. The mule – who co-operated to the extent that these guys couldn’t be caught without her – is given death. Sandiford has been treated with quite extraordinary severity. If you inform on major drug criminals and take part in sting operations to bring them to justice, you put yourself at serious personal risk. That is recognised around the world. That’s why we have witness protection programmes.

We have such programmes in the UK. When I was Director of Public Prosecutions, we frequently used co-operating witnesses such as Lindsay Sandiford to give evidence against their former colleagues. They always received significantly reduced sentences and where appropriate were placed in protection programmes.

It is very difficult to catch anyone other than mules because they are the ones who put themselves on the line. Unless they co-operate, the chances of catching those higher up the chain tend to be slender. But who will co-operate in Indonesia in the future if the prospect is the death sentence? Being taken out to a forest somewhere and shot in the head isn’t a great incentive.

I would urge the Indonesian Supreme Court to look at this very, very closely and I am sure the British Government will urge them to do likewise. I am not in any way minimising the seriousness of Sandiford’s crime. But to give her a sentence that recognises no mitigating factors is extraordinary. The arguments for overturning it are compelling.

She wards off dark moods with gallows humour, saying: ‘Maybe I should knit a step ladder or a parachute.’ Asked what goods she would like brought to prison from outside, she replied: ‘Marlboro Lights, dark chocolate, Band Aid plasters and a helicopter with in-flight service.’

The friendship of her fellow inmates and kindness of prison guards has been a source of strength, she said, as well as messages from her family and her 26-year-old Indian boyfriend, with whom she says she is in regular contact. ‘I can’t tell you how much support I’ve had,’ she said. ‘The prison authorities have been outstandingly humane and concerned and caring.

‘I am in a God-awful situation but other than the fact I am in an overcrowded cell they couldn’t have been more kind to me. If they offered me a prisoner transfer (to the UK) I wouldn’t take it.

‘The girls in the women’s block and the prison officers are very shocked at what has happened to me and have been incredibly kind.

‘They have allowed me to have a proper mattress and a chair. One of the prisoners even made me a chair because of my arthritis.

‘Lots of people ponder about life and death and God and there are no clear answers of course. That’s the truth of it. My philosophy is that if there is a God, I hope he will know I was a half-decent person who never tried to do anyone any harm.

‘If there isn’t I will know I am and that for me is enough. I don’t think I’ve done anything really bad. If I had to go through this all again, I would make the same choices.’

Sandiford said she feared her Supreme Court appeal – for which her family is trying to raise £8,000 – was doomed because the judges would not want to embarrass Indonesia by overturning the decisions of lower courts in such a high-profile case. ‘They are never going to let me go. I am a political pawn now. I know that,’ she said.





Plot 'masterminds' in brutal jail punch-up

The alleged masterminds behind the smuggling plot that saw Lindsay Sandiford sentenced to death are said to have been separated after a vodka-fuelled fight behind bars.

Julian Ponder and Paul Beales, who shared a cell in Kerobokan jail in Bali, have been told they will lose time off on remission because of the brawl, prison sources claim.



Beales was taken to hospital for 12 stitches in two cuts to his head after being hit by Ponder with a plank of wood ripped from a door panel, according to an inmate in the same block. ‘It was on a Saturday a fortnight ago and they had been drinking vodka smuggled into the prison all day when the row broke out,’ said the inmate. ‘They are normally thick as thieves and no one knows what caused them to fall out.’



The pair refused to speak to each other after the brawl and have now been moved to separate cells, he said.



Ponder, known as Bali’s Mr Big, was jailed for six years for possessing drugs and Beales for four years on similar charges after allegations against them of trafficking drugs were dropped.



Ponder has also been banned from seeing his partner Rachel Dougall after the pair fought through the fence separating the men’s and women’s blocks at Kerobokan, according to another jail source.



Male and female prisoners are allowed to talk through the fence but Ponder’s visits to Dougall were stopped after they brawled, with Ponder allegedly grabbing Dougall’s hair through the wire. Dougall is due to leave Kerobokan at the end of next month after serving a year for failing to report a crime.



She is expected to fly back to Britain to be reunited with daughter Kitty, who is living with her maternal grandparents in Brighton.



Prison officials refused to comment on the brawls but Beales’s Indonesian wife acknowledged the fight on Friday, saying: ‘Paul is much better now and he and Julian are friends again.’



