Bali Court Upholds Death Sentence For British Grandmother Lindsay Sandiford

[Mario2008]

She new the risks she took. But it is sad that it are always the people low in the chain that seems to pay the price, while the big fish remain out of the hand of justice.

[Credo]

At 56, she was not new to the business. I doubt the dealers picked her name at random from the phone book. My guess is a seasoned Mule.

[ThailandNoob]

How can the court rule that she "has not admitted her crime" when she led authorities to the ringleader of the operation? As I recall from newspaper articles around the time of her arrest, the police said that she was fully co-operating. And how is it that the ringleader only gets six years while a mere mule gets the firing squad?

[Dr Wanchai]

As usual the mightier than thou, would be executioners posting here in the name of humanity (??sheeesh) take a simplistic view of a much more complex and harrowing issue. The death penalty is state sanctioned murder-there is absolutely no evidence to support the notion that the death penalty deters people from doing anything. It is merely vengeful and utterly unjustified.

I am not a supporter of drug smuggling, nor anything illegal, but I am concerned for the woman, her children, her family, her friends and the general mental health of those of you and the Indonesian legal system, who are openly baying for her blood.

Nothing, but nothing is so simple- except for the thoughts of some of the mob rule individuals in here promulgating their vile, spiteful, venemous misinformed judgements. Shame on you.

Aren't you concerned about the victims of crimes, their children, their families, their friends the foreign (and probably

in your mind sub-standard) legal system, which impose death penalties on criminals? Perhaps not ! All criminals

have families and friends and can present so-called "mitigating circumstances" under any circumstances.

Serves this woman right that she had received the death sentence. I sincerely hope that there will be no about turn

on their decision.

The fact that she is foreign and is white is no justification for a lenient sentence.

The shame is really on you !

[wigantojapan]

This is one thing that worries me. I never let my luggage out of sight. My checked luggage, I tape sealing tags onto. If the seals were broken I'd just walk away from it and lose it. I put no self-identifying items in my checked luggage. If I'm changing planes in any foreign country or even in Bangkok, I look at the seals at my final destination. So far so good.

Your checked luggage is identified trough the baggage tag linked with your air ticket and passeport info.

Death penalty is revolting, and the feeling that one could pay it's way out if wealthy enough, and that only the mules and not the network headmasters are being punished does not help.

customs at tokyo international where putting drugs into non japanese passengers luggage as a so called training exercise.they mananged to lose 100g planted in a malaysian guys suitcase,and had to go to his hotel the next day to collect it.As it happens there was over 270 caes admitted by the same customs team over a period of 2 years......thats scary

[wellred]

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

[maidu]

Drug laws are too harsh, and the sentence is too harsh.

If a country is going to enact drug laws, they should be commensurate with the perceived crime. The people drafting the laws should be familiar with individual drugs and their effects. Instead, they're not familiar with the drugs in question - other than accepting biased peoples' worst case scenarios as gospel truth.

Two cases in point:
1. Alcohol, a legal drug: causes more harm than all illegal drugs combined.

2. Hemp, an illegal drug, can't get a person high - even if they smoked a barrel of the stuff.

By being so off-base in their laws, countries like Indonesia (and most SE countries) appear cruel and ignorant in their laws and punishments.

[Credo]

The laws maybe harsh, but people know about them. I would suggest that if you want to use drugs that you travel to places that are little more accommodating and accepting, like Amsterdam.

Anytime I've been anywhere in Asia where there are drugs being offered, I make a hasty retreat.

[vanillalatte]

How can the court rule that she "has not admitted her crime" when she led authorities to the ringleader of the operation? As I recall from newspaper articles around the time of her arrest, the police said that she was fully co-operating. And how is it that the ringleader only gets six years while a mere mule gets the firing squad?

She made deal with prosecutor shopping out ringleader.

The ringleader(or his boss) - bought judge,they did not pay for her,she could not afford to buy judge or she thought

that no-monies deal with prosecutor was enough.

What options are open for her now?...long time in K Hotel.

Edited April 11, 2013 by vanillalatte

[Tchooptip]

I don't care if she is British or a grandmother, first and foremost she is a drugsmuggler, who for money was ready to destroy other peoples lives. Let her rut in prison!

I am sorry to say.............. that I totally agree with you!

[Tchooptip]

Why shouldn't she be executed? When one reviews her and her family's history you discover a cess pit of criminality and drug dealing along with a multitude of other criminal and anti social offenses.

She knew the risk, she took the risk, she lost, Had she won we would have never had heard of her and her poisonous trade would have paid her yet more handsome profits tax free too,, those profits being the dividends of many ruined lives.This creature can hardly be described as a loss to the human race.

Sorry but the word sympathy lies in the dictionary twixt ''so'' and ''what'' in my view..

As he drinks another beer, ( legal drug because it's taxed by governments worldwide, any drug they can't tax is illegal).

You have been totally brainwashed by the governments of the world, their taxed drugs are good, non taxed drugs are bad., you buy into it, because you don't wanna have any stigma on your drug of choice, Alcohol, it's legal, the fact that Alcohol kills more people than all illegal drugs put together means nothing.

If I invented a drug with the same power as Alcohol, I would be put to death if I tried to sell it privately, not for anything other than, Alcohol and Tobbaco companies that are responsible for millions of deaths per year, who give massive political donations, would see me as a threat to their massive wealth.

Maybe we have not the same vision... relation (​ joking) with alcohol but I seldom drink more than 2/3 beers sometimes do not drink a whole month, IMHO not sure could be so easy for a junkie with his dope

... should I be short of money for my bottle of black Bacardi, yes I love black Bacardi (nobody taste's perfect) and should I cross around midnight the path of a lonely old lady, lost in the woods of nowhere I would not even notice her diamond necklace gold ring and heavy gold bracelet and just wished her good night trying to show her the way ... some junkies too ? after all why not... some junkies maybe good people... drug-smugglers I am afraid never

[Tchooptip]

The prison sentences in Indonesia are completely ridiculous and stand in no relation to the crime!!! One guy gets 6 years for 23 grams of cocaine and the girl gets 4 years for 3.6 grams of hashish????

Yes yes true...and if I'm not wrong people with zero gram get nothing

[wolf5370]

The death penalty does not work because criminals never think they will be caught and because the risk is mitigated by the huge (to them) benefits of getting away with it.

Having said that, the country has decided that the death penalty is a valid sentence for that crime. Remember, she wasn't a little old lady who had her own little stash of blow to help ease the arthritis, she was smuggling in millions of dollars of class A drugs. It was a business to her and a risk she took knowing the consequences.

I DO feel real sympathy for recreational drug users that are caught and castigated for a small amount of personal use substance (especially as has been mentioned here several times - the legality of recreational drugs is based on arbitrary semantics, if companies have been making money and paying taxes (and have lobbying power), then it is legal - it is not even based on history as hashish and opium have been used in societies around the world for as long as alcohol in others). However, drug smuggling/dealing/organised crime in general, is a different ball game.

15 years is too soft - death is too harsh - IMO.

[wolf5370]

Drug laws are too harsh, and the sentence is too harsh.

If a country is going to enact drug laws, they should be commensurate with the perceived crime. The people drafting the laws should be familiar with individual drugs and their effects. Instead, they're not familiar with the drugs in question - other than accepting biased peoples' worst case scenarios as gospel truth.

Two cases in point:

1. Alcohol, a legal drug: causes more harm than all illegal drugs combined.

2. Hemp, an illegal drug, can't get a person high - even if they smoked a barrel of the stuff.

By being so off-base in their laws, countries like Indonesia (and most SE countries) appear cruel and ignorant in their laws and punishments.

I would suggest the same is true for every country. Rapists often get longer sentences than murderers - so do paedophiles - simply because they are emotive. How about, beating someone up because they are black/gay/Muslim/etc carries much harsher punishment in many countries than beating someone up for no reason at all - easy to understand the reasoning behind it, but is one victim worth more than another?

Dogs that bite are often put down (killed), even with little damage from the bite - but people that commit mass murder in many of the same countries are not.

Schemes like "3 strikes and your out" in some US states sees people going to prison for life after a series of low impact crimes, and others getting out early on murder raps because of good behaviour inside.

Then take into consideration rich and wealthy getting away with serious crimes simply because they can afford good lawyers (and teams including jury selection analysts, paid experts, etc) - OJ Simpson comes to mind.

[7by7]

Drug laws are too harsh, and the sentence is too harsh.

If a country is going to enact drug laws, they should be commensurate with the perceived crime. The people drafting the laws should be familiar with individual drugs and their effects. Instead, they're not familiar with the drugs in question - other than accepting biased peoples' worst case scenarios as gospel truth.

Two cases in point:

1. Alcohol, a legal drug: causes more harm than all illegal drugs combined.

2. Hemp, an illegal drug, can't get a person high - even if they smoked a barrel of the stuff.

By being so off-base in their laws, countries like Indonesia (and most SE countries) appear cruel and ignorant in their laws and punishments.

As I said before

Whether or not all recreational drugs should be legal is not the issue here.

This woman knew that what she did was illegal and carried a possible death sentence.

She took the risk and lost. Nobody's fault but hers.

I feel exactly the same when I read about westerners being punished, even flogged, for having alcohol in certain Gulf states.

[maidu]

I don't care if she is British or a grandmother, first and foremost she is a drugsmuggler, who for money was ready to destroy other peoples lives. Let her rut in prison!

I am sorry to say.............. that I totally agree with you!

Two things: First off; there is a well hammered truism that alcohol dealers want everyone to embrace: that's that all users of recreational drugs (other than alcohol) are abusers, and drug-crazed and all that goes with that. If you believe that, then you've been successfully indoctrinated by purveyors of the only legal recreational drug.

Secondly: drinkers of alcohol will always portray their use of it as mild and benign.

Can you see a pattern here? If so, can you see how it's advantageous for dealers of alcoholic drinks to demonize all other recreational drugs - and concurrently put theirs on a sophisticated plateau. Lots of money is made by perpetuating that mind-set. Lots of money could be lost (by them) if alcohol industry were to allow even one other rec. drug to gain favor.

[MAJIC]

I don't care if she is British or a grandmother, first and foremost she is a drugsmuggler, who for money was ready to destroy other peoples lives. Let her rut in prison!

Fist of all it's rot and not rut. Secondly you seem to have missed the point. Prison is what she wants, but she'll get the death penalty.

So unfortunate, drugdealer is not getting what she want's!

That's not the point. The point is that first of all she doesn't deserve the death penalty for the crime she committed, and secondly if someone tells you that he will harm/potentially kill your grandchildren if you don't go and do that drug run would you think it's fair that the judgers give you the death penalty when you get caught???

Assuming she is telling the truth,which on the balance of probabilities,is probably just a mitigating plea ,and the court will have heard many excuses for being a greedy drug dealer,who has done it more than once from the sound of it.

The evidence states:

Indonesian police say she was at the centre of a drugs importing ring involving three other Britons after a drugs haul worth $2.4 million.

Hardly, a little old Granny being Blackmailed!

Edited April 11, 2013 by MAJIC

[Keith67]

And then there's Big Pharma - which produce drugs which kill more people than all illegal drugs combined. Not sure if pharma drugs cause more harm and deaths than alcohol. Are there any studies on that?

So are you saying beer and wine doesn't contribute to crime and untimely deaths? I suggest you read a newspaper once in awhile. Every day there are dozens of crimes and murders stemming from imbibing alcohol.

Eeeeeeeer, don't know, but l have drunk beer and wine all my life and been no problem to anyone, ....

3.6 grams of hashish. Jeez Louise, putting someone in the slammer for a couple tokes of hash is cruel. Half the people who smoke hash, only get a headache or a craving for brownies. What's next for Indonesia, outlawing headaches and sweets?

Drug laws are too harsh, and the sentence is too harsh.

If a country is going to enact drug laws, they should be commensurate with the perceived crime. The people drafting the laws should be familiar with individual drugs and their effects. Instead, they're not familiar with the drugs in question - other than accepting biased peoples' worst case scenarios as gospel truth.

Two cases in point:

1. Alcohol, a legal drug: causes more harm than all illegal drugs combined.

2. Hemp, an illegal drug, can't get a person high - even if they smoked a barrel of the stuff.

By being so off-base in their laws, countries like Indonesia (and most SE countries) appear cruel and ignorant in their laws and punishments.

Two things: First off; there is a well hammered truism that alcohol dealers want everyone to embrace: that's that all users of recreational drugs (other than alcohol) are abusers, and drug-crazed and all that goes with that. If you believe that, then you've been successfully indoctrinated by purveyors of the only legal recreational drug.

Secondly: drinkers of alcohol will always portray their use of it as mild and benign.

Can you see a pattern here? If so, can you see how it's advantageous for dealers of alcoholic drinks to demonize all other recreational drugs - and concurrently put theirs on a sophisticated plateau. Lots of money is made by perpetuating that mind-set. Lots of money could be lost (by them) if alcohol industry were to allow even one other rec. drug to gain favor.

I might be a bit slow but as you keep referring to alcohol in a topic related to drug trafficking, are you trying to say alcohol should be made illegal or that all drugs should be made legal?