British Grandma Writes Goodbye Letters Expecting Imminent Execution

A British grandmother who is on death row in Indonesia is writing goodbye letters to her family and believes she may be executed in the very near future.

The 58-year-old Lindsay Sandiford was sentenced to death in Bali last year following her conviction for trafficking drugs after customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.4 million hidden in a false bottom in her suitcase in 2012. She had just arrived to Indonesia on a flight from Thailand.

Sandiford wrote in an article in the British newspaper Mail that she expects to die shortly following the controversial execution of seven foreign drug convicts last week. The action led to wide international protest.

"My execution is imminent and I know I might die at any time now. I could be taken tomorrow from my cell," Sandiford wrote. "I have started to write goodbye letters to members of my family."

Sandiford admitted she was carrying drugs but says that she only agreed to do so after a drug syndicate threatened to kill her son.

Sandiford added that she will sing "Magic Moments" when facing the firing squad. 

"I won't wear a blindfold. It's not because I'm brave but because I don't want to hide — I want them to look at me when they shoot me," she said.

Sandiford referred to Andrew Chan in her article. Chan was one of two Australians executed for his role in a plan to smuggle heroin but who became a Christian pastor while serving his sentence. Referring her to "one of the heroes of my life,” she said the two had become close friends. 

Chan’s execution of Chan and that of Australian Myuran Sukumaran has hindered relations between Australia and Indonesia.

Sandiford said her greatest regret is that she will likely never see her two-year-old granddaughter who was born shortly after her arrest.