Grandmother awaits execution after 10 years on death row

A Northern Irish grandmother, who has been on death row in Indonesia for a decade, has been spending time knitting in prison.

Lindsay Sandiford had separated from her husband and moved to India from the UK in 2012. From there, the 65-year-old travelled to Indonesia in 2013, trying to smuggle cocaine worth £1.6 million. She was arrested and sentenced to death by firing squad on January 22, 2013. However, executions of this kind are not carried out in the country frequently, due to which some prisoners have to wait for over 10 years after being locked up in jail.

When Sandiford was caught, she insisted that she had been told to smuggle the Class A drugs by a criminal gang who had threatened to kill her family if she refused. But she later changed her story when told that she could be found guilty on drug trafficking and put on death row, telling authorities that she had been asked to do so by Julian Ponder, an antiques dealer in the UK. She helped the police in their effort to catch Ponder but was still charged with drug trafficking later.

In a recent interview by a prison inmate, it has been said that Sandiford has become “increasingly reclusive”. Sandiford herself mentioned that she has accepted her fate and feels blessed that she has been able to see her two sons grow up over the years.