Featured Image Credit: SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Crime, World News, Death Row
Jen Thomas
Topics: Crime, World News, Death Row
A grandmother-of-three who has been facing execution in Bali reportedly shared a shocking final wish after more than a decade behind bars.
Lindsay Sandiford was caught trying to smuggle 11lb of cocaine worth around $2.1 million at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport from Bangkok, Thailand.
She was sentenced to death row and was locked up in the notorious Kerobokan prison back in 2012, where she has remained ever since.
The prison has made headlines before for horrifying levels of overcrowding.
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Sandiford has been sharing a cell measuring 10ft by 8ft with 13 other women, when the room is meant to hold three.
The prison was built to hold 350 inmates, but in 2017 was found to have nearly 1,400 prisoners.
A former cell mate of the British grandmother has spoken out about how Sandiford is coping behind bars as she awaits her fate.
Heather Mack served a 10-year sentence in the same prison for murder, and said the grandmother was 'isolated' at times.
She told the Mirror: "I am friends with Lindsay but she has been difficult to speak to recently."
"She spends all day pretty much alone in her cell and doesn't mix so much with the other prisoners. She snaps at me for no reason but I still make an effort with her."
Lindsay shared a final wish: "When it happens I don't want my family to come. I don't want any fuss at all. The one thing certain about life is no one gets out alive."
"My attitude is 'If you want to shoot me, shoot me. Get on with it'," she said.
Mack said seeing two other inmates being taken away for execution was a shock: "They had turned their lives around and were different people to when they were convicted, so everyone thought they would be OK, but when Lindsay witnessed them being taken away to face death, she realised that her own end was nearing. That's when the stark reality set in."
She said the grandmother-of-three told her: "It won't be a hard thing for me to face anymore, I might not have chosen this kind of end, but then again, dying in agony from cancer isn’t exactly appealing either. I do feel I can cope with it."
In recent weeks it seems that there has been renewed hope of a release for the 69-year-old, following a legislation change in the country.
According to the Myanmar Accountability Project, a capital punishment verdict may be changed to a life prison term.
It depends on if the prisoner shows a 'commendable attitude and actions', and as Sandiford has spent more than 10 years behind bars and has shown good behaviour, like teaching other inmates to knit, some expect that she could be released.
In fact, one prison source says Sandiford is now so convinced she will be let go that she has been giving her belongings away.
The source explained to The Mirror: "Lindsay has slumped into depression because she's not been released yet. She's given away all her clothes and things she had because she was expecting to be released already. But it's understood she will be released in a few months, along with other westerners.
"The new Indonesian president has, among his many changes, said he wants to reduce the numbers in jail.
"Local people are being released, then overseas people are to be looked at. Already the Australian drug group known as the Bali Nine are back in Australia."
She was also reunited with her family earlier this year, and had the chance to hug her grandchildren.