Briton convicted of drug smuggling has 14 days to take case to Indonesian supreme court after having appeal rejected
A British woman convicted of smuggling £1.6m of cocaine into Bali
will be executed, an Indonesian court has said, despite appeals for her
life to be saved.
A Bali high court spokesman announced on Monday that
it had rejected an appeal from Lindsay June Sandiford, 56. She was
arrested for drug trafficking in May last year after local police said
they found almost 4kg of cocaine in the lining of her suitcase. In
January she was sentenced by a district court to face a firing squad .
The
court spokesman said the latest verdict was decided last week.
Sandiford has 14 days to appeal to the national supreme court. If the
appeal fails, she could ask the president for clemency. Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono has commuted sentences for four drug offenders on death row
since he took office in 2004.
Three other Britons were involved in
the plot to smuggle drugs into Bali. Julian Ponder, 43, was jailed for
six years in January and fined the equivalent of £65,000 after being
convicted of cocaine possession. His lawyers said he was told Sandiford
was delivering a present for his child's birthday and, when he met her
to receive the gift, police officers arrested him.
Ponder's
partner, Rachel Dougall, 38, from Brighton, received a one-year jail
sentence last month. She had been in jail for eight months awaiting
trial and could be reunited with her daughter this month. Paul Beales, a
property developer and long-time Bali resident, was also spared a harsh
sentence: judges gave him four years for possession of a small amount
of hashish.
The UK government said it was disappointed that
Sandiford had lost her appeal. A spokesperson for the Foreign Office
reiterated the UK's opposition to the death penalty.
"We are
disappointed to hear that Lindsay Sandiford's appeal has been refused by
the high court in Bali," said the spokesperson. "The UK strongly
opposes the death penalty and has repeatedly made representations to the
Indonesian government on this matter. We will continue to provide
consular assistance at this difficult time."
HBC: This is some serious business I must say. No be small thing OooO.
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