A British woman sentenced to death by firing squad for smuggling cocaine into Bali has notified Indonesian officials she intends to appeal.

Lindsay Sandiford, 56, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was convicted last week of taking 10.6lb 4.8kg (10.6lb) of the drug into the country.

She was accused by the court of damaging the image of Bali and received the sentence despite prosecutors only asking for a 15-year prison term.

A court official confirmed his office had received the appeal request through the head of Kerobokan prison, where Sandiford is being held.

Earlier on Monday, it was announced that the British government is to be challenged over its failure to fund legal representation for Sandiford, who it is thought cannot afford legal representation for the appeal.

The law firm Leigh Day, which is working with the charity Reprieve, said it would cost around £2,500 to pay for an adequate lawyer to take on her case, but the government will not pay.

The firm said Sandiford, originally from Redcar, Teesside, had not been properly represented since her arrest at Bali airport last May.

Rosa Curling, from the firm's human rights team, said: "The UK government has repeatedly confirmed its opposition to the death penalty.

"It has a clear legal duty to ensure our client, who has no money to be able to pay for the basic essentials, let alone legal representation, receives appropriate assistance to be able to file an appeal against her death sentence.

"[The foreign secretary, William] Hague must not allow this to happen – he must immediately ensure Ms Sandiford, a British citizen, is provided with the opportunity to challenge her sentence and file an appeal."

The firm is seeking a judicial review of the government's decision. A hearing at the high court in London will be held before Thursday.

Harriet McCulloch, investigator at Reprieve, said: "Everyone knows that capital punishment means that those without the capital get the punishment.

"Lindsay's poverty means that she has ended up sentenced to death after a manifestly unfair trial."

The Foreign Office said the government does not fund legal representation for British nationals abroad, but Sandiford's case was being raised through diplomatic channels.

A spokesman said: "We strongly object to the death penalty and continue to provide consular assistance to Lindsay and her family during this difficult time.

"We have made repeated representations to the Indonesia authorities, and the foreign secretary raised Lindsay Sandiford's case with Dr RM Marty Natalegawa, Indonesian foreign minister, during the recent November state visit of the Indonesian president.

"We understand that, under Indonesian law, Lindsay has at least two further avenues of appeal through the courts as, well as an opportunity to apply for presidential clemency should these be unsuccessful."

The government did not provide legal representation for British nationals overseas but did assist them in "identifying potential legal representation", said the spokesman, adding: "We will continue to raise this case on diplomatic channels."

Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/28/british-woman-death-penalty-indonesia

The British grandmother sentenced to death in Indonesia who could not afford to finance an appeal will have lawyers paid by donations from a Just Giving page and members of the British public, the Huffington Post has learnt.


As of Friday, Lindsay Sandiford was still unrepresented with days left to appeal her death sentence on drugs charges last week, after she lost her legal attempt, through British charity Reprieve, to ensure the Foreign Office supported her appeal.

Having exhausted her family’s finances to pay for a trial lawyer, Sandiford had no money to pay for an appeal – which involves filing a complicated legal document in Indonesian, a language she does not speak, by February 12.

A lawyer has agreed to act for the family without charge, but Sandiford could not even afford his expenses of £2,500.

James Cartwright, 48, from Nottinghamshire, told HuffPost UK he had heard about Sandiford's appeal on BBC Radio 5Live and thought the amount was so small, it could easily be raised in donations.

So he started a Just Giving page, called 'Save Lindsay'.

"I heard about it on the news, and I did feel for her very much, but it wasn't until I heard about how much she was suing the government for, £2,500 that I thought, this is such a piddly amount of money, it's absurd.

"People were ringing into the 5Live phone-in saying, why doesn't the government just pay up?

"And I thought, well, if the government doesn't pay up we'll have a bit of a whip-round, and the good old British people will pay. And that's exactly what's happened. The government refused to pay, but in three or four days we've raised enough to pay for her appeal.

"The money is going through Reprieve, they have said they will make sure the money goes to pay the lawyer in Indonesia. They have already let the family know that money has been raised to prepare the appeal. It's a done deal."

Reprieve told HuffPost UK it had received other large donations, as well as the donations from the Just Giving page, to help pay for the appeal, and any subsequent legal action should Sandiford fail at the first appeal.

Cartwright, an IT manager, said he had no connection to the case and was just "an ordinary guy in the street" trying to be proactive. He has not heard from Sandiford's family, but said he did not want recognition.

"If anything, the thanks should go to the ordinary British people who raised the money.

"If I was wealthy, I would have just written a cheque myself. I can't afford £2,500 but it's not much in the scheme of things. I can afford some, other people can too.

"We got some very big single donations and many, many small ones."

Some on the Just Giving site have donated up to £200.

Cartwright said that he was "anti-death penalty" which had spurred him to raise the money. "I think it's abhorrant that people think taking someone's life is OK, even as a deterrent.

"She's a woman, a British citizen alone in a foreign country, who might have been blackmailed or coerced. I feel what she did was wrong, but it seems completely and utterly out of proportion."

Reprieve's Donald Campbell told HuffPost UK: "Lindsay Sandiford has enough for this stage of her appeal, and it's fantastic to see the British people come forward to take action where the British government wouldn't.

"All the money came to us unsolicited and will be used for the case."

Sandiford currently faces death by firing squad for attempting to smuggle £1.7m cocaine. Prosecution lawyers asked for her to serve a 15-year sentence, but a panel of judges, headed by Amser Simanjuntak, concluded that Sandiford had damaged the image of Bali as a tourism destination and weakened the government's programme of drug annihilation. She was therefore sentenced to death.

Sumber : http://go.girilaya.com/5ehsfz