Briton
Lindsay Sandiford (R) attends her trial at a Denpasar court on
Indonesia's Bali
island on January 22, 2013 (AFP, Sonny Tumbelaka)
|
DENPASAR,
Indonesia — An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced a 56-year-old British
grandmother to death for smuggling cocaine into the resort island of Bali.
Lindsay
Sandiford sobbed as she heard the verdict, which stunned her defence team after
the prosecution had recommended a lenient sentence of just 15 years
imprisonment.
"We
found Lindsay Sandiford convincingly and legally guilty for importing
narcotics... and sentenced the defendant to death," judge Amser
Simanjuntak told Denpasar district court.
Sandiford's
lawyer said it was likely an appeal would be launched against the stiff
sentence, which came despite the prosecution noting she had admitted her crime
and behaved politely in court.
Lindsay
Sandiford (C) is escorted from
a holding cell to the court room before
her
trial in Bali on January 22, 2013 (AFP,
Sonny Tumbelaka)
|
Sandiford,
in spectacles and with her hair tied back, hung her head low and cried as the
verdict was read out, while her sister Hillary Parson who attended the trial
also sobbed.
A British
embassy representative who attended the hearing declined to comment.
Sandiford
was arrested at Bali's international airport in May with 4.79 kilograms (10.6
pounds) of cocaine stashed in her suitcase.
Police said
she was the ringleader of a drug importing ring involving three other Britons
and an Indian who have also been arrested.
Sandiford
argued that she was forced into transporting the drugs in order to protect her
children whose safety was at stake.
But the
court rejected that argument and said there were "no mitigating
circumstances" to allow for leniency.
"All
evidence was incriminating against the defendant," said another judge on
the panel, Bagus Komang Wijaya Adi.
The court
said that in fact Sandiford had not admitted her crime and that she had
undermined Indonesia's hard-line stance on drugs.
"Her
action was against the government's effort to combat drug use in the country
and she insisted that she never committed the crime," judge Amser
Simanjuntak said.
Briton
Rachel Dougall (R) appears in court
for sentencing over drugs charges at a
court in Bali on December 20, 2012 (AFP/
File, Sonny Tumbelaka)
|
Two other
Britons arrested in connection with the case received light sentences last
month.
Rachel
Dougall was sentenced to 12 months for failing to report Sandiford's crime and
Paul Beales received four years for possession of 3.6 grams of hashish but was
cleared of drug trafficking.
A fourth
Briton, Julian Ponder, is expected to hear his sentence at the end of this
month after prosecutors recommended a seven-year jail term.
Indonesia
enforces stiff penalties for drug trafficking, but death penalty sentences are
commonly commuted to long jail sentences.
Two members
of an Australian drug smuggling gang known as the "Bali Nine" who
were arrested in 2005 are currently on death row, while the seven others face
lengthy jail terms.
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