British woman sentenced to death for drug smuggling

An Indonesian court on Tuesday sentenced a British woman to death for smuggling 4.8 kilograms of cocaine into the resort island of Bali.

The court imposed the death penalty despite a request by prosecutors that Lindsay Sandiford, 56, be sentenced to 15 years in prison instead, out of consideration for her age.

Amser Simanjuntak, chief judge at the Denpasar district court, said Sandiford “did not admit her guilt and was equivocating.” Sandiford, from Gloucestershire, was arrested at Bali’s airport in May with the drug in her luggage.

She has insisted she was coerced into bringing the drug to the Indonesian island, and that her son’s safety had been threatened if she failed to comply.

Her lawyer Esra Karo-karo said Sandiford would appeal. “We object to the verdict because it doesn’t take into account mitigating factors such as her age and ill health,” she said.